COGS OF LAE PEAINS. 399 
excepting on the lining of the wing, which is dusky blackish; 
the wings are twelve inches long ; the breast is greyish, some- 
what mottled with black ; on each side below is a pure white 
space, some of the feathers of which are tipt or banded with 
black ; the large feathers of the flanks are blackish, shafted 
with white, crossed by several whitish bands, and sprinkled 
with yellowish ; a broad oblong patch of deep brownish black 
occupies the whole of the belly and vent, the outer feathers 
being shafted with white, and broadly white at the point of their 
outer webs ; the femorals and small feathers of the tarsus ex- 
tending between the toes are yellowish grey, minutely waved 
with blackish; the tarsus measures two inches; the toes 
are dusky black, and the pectinated row of processes long, 
strong, and dingy whitish ; the nails, blackish ; the whole base 
- of the plumage, with the exception of that of the neck beneath, 
which is. white, is of a dusky grey. The tail is ten inches 
long, and in colour is, as well as its coverts, in harmony with 
the rest of the plumage; the ground colour is blackish, and 
crossed, or rather mottled, with bands of whitish spots dis- 
posed irregularly, between which are small additional darker 
spots ; the two middle ones are mottled all over, but the others 
are almost immaculate on their inner vane, and at the point ; 
hence the lower surface of the unexpanded tail is of a silvery 
grey, much darker than that of the wings; at the very tip of 
the tail-feathers, the middle excepted, appears a very small 
whitish spot, the two outer pairs being rather broadly yellowish 
white, dotted with blackish on that part ; the tail is composed 
of twenty feathers, the highest, number ever met with in any 
tribe of birds. Although it appears strongly cuneiform, owing 
to the remarkable shape and curve of the feathers, it is, when 
expanded and properly examined, nothing more than much 
rounded ; the two in the middle, which are the longest, reach- 
ing but a trifle beyond the adjoining, and so on in succession, 
the difference in length increasing progressively, but very 
eradually at first, and more and more as they are distant from 
the centre, there being nearly an inch difference between the 
third and second, and full that between the second and the 
