298 MOTMOT. 



fulvous, blue, and grey. Tail the same as in the other, adorned at 

 the tip with blue, and black vanes. One probably similar to this, it" 

 not the same, was in the possession of the late Mr. Thompson, of 

 Little St. Martin's Lane, London : it was twenty inches long ; bill 

 one inch and three quarters long, formed as usual ; nostrils oblong, 

 not prominent, placed close to the edge of the bill, in a reddish space ; 

 colour yellow, curved, toward the end black, with a white tip ; crown 

 of the head, including the eyes, cinereous green; between the bill 

 and eyes a rufous spot ; neck, breast, back, and wing coverts deep 

 rufous ; beneath from the breast and the rest of the wing dusky blue- 

 black ; tail cuneiform, formed not unlike that of the Magpie, dusky 

 bluish black ; legs black. 



B. — Length of the last. Bill as before described ; crown of the 

 head wholly rufous or rust-colour, but no blue in any part; from 

 the nostrils to the eyes black, passing beneath, and ending bluntly, 

 not in a point as in the first ; on the breast a streak or two of black ; 

 the plumage otherwise not unlike the one usually seen in cabinets ; 

 webs of the tail complete. 



In another, the head is as in the usual one ; forehead pale blue, 

 with a black streak through the eye, pointed behind ; chin and throat 

 tawny ; a few streaks of black on the breast ; webs of the tail bare, 

 for half an inch. 



These two latter no doubt differ only in sex or age ; the last 

 described is certainly an older bird ; and I learn from a person who 

 has kept them alive, that the bareness of part of the tail began by 

 degrees, small portions falling off without apparent cause, and the 

 common opinion is, that it always so happened in old specimens. 



