meassie. 2 EE EE DEA RE, 
fies and bread mixed together. Varro informs us 
that they were birds of paffage, coming in au- 
tumn, and departing in the fpring. They muft 
have been taken in great numbers, for they were 
kept by thoufands together in their fattening avia- 
ries *. They do not arrive in France till the be- 
sinning of December. 
Thefe birds weigh generally about four ounces ; 
their length is ten inches, theif breadth feventeen, 
The head is afh-colored inclining to olive, and 
{potted with black, the back and greater coverts 
of the wings of a fine deep chefnut; the rump 
afh-colored: the tail is black: the lower parts of 
the two middlemoft feathers, and the interior up- 
per fides of the outmoft feathers excepted; the 
firft being afh-colored, the latter white. The iegs 
re black; the talons very ftrong. 
= ey, ibs TE 4 2.6% 
305 
DeEsceip. 
