340 bvCK. 



an oblong, brown, bronzed one ; neck while ; breast and half* the 

 belly black, the rest white ; back black, marked forwards with a 

 cordated, dusky white, large spot ; wings black, second quills 

 brownish, the feathers greatly acuminated, and some of them hanging 

 over the others ; tail cuneiform, long, consisting of twelve feathers, 

 the two outer ones white ; the third longer, black, with the margins 

 and tips white; fourth longer, the same, but not tipped with white; 

 fifth wholly black, much longer, and more narrow than the others ; 

 but the two middle are black, very long, pointed, curved at the end ; 

 the upper coverts black, the lower white ; legs lead-colour. 



In the female the bill is rarely marked with a red spot ; head 

 white, above dirty-coloured ; on the temples a small black spot, and 

 beneath one of pale grey ; neck white ; on the breast begins a dirty 

 circle, which, with the fore part of the belly, is cinereous, the hinder 

 part white ; back dusky ; scapulars the same, but not so long as in 

 the male ; the tail cuneiform, but the four middle feathers only 

 exceed in proportion as in other birds, with the wedge-shaped tail ; 

 the colour brownish, the outer ones paler, with the middle more 

 obscure ; in other things resembling the male. We have reason to 

 believe that the male does not gain the elongated tail feathers till a 

 certain period of life; for some of this sex, apparently adults, have 

 been met with, having tails no longer than in the female. The 

 young birds are in general more dull in colour than the adults, and 

 the white parts not pure ; belly white ; back and wings black 

 in all ; the scapulars ash-colour, with pale margins, but they vary 

 exceedingly according to their ages. M. Brunnich* describes five 

 birds of this species, but does not pretend to determine how they 

 differ from each other in respect to sex or age. Steller, who 

 observed them in Kamtschatka, says, that the larynx in the male 

 has three openings, covered with a thin (supposed valvular) mem- 

 brane, which forms the singularity of its voice ;f but in the female 



* Orn. boreal. No. 75 — 79. f Descrip. Kamtsch. 498. However this may be, 



the females are uniformly the more noisy. 



