114 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



black, the adjoining ones are very slightly tipped with white ; the others have wider white 

 tips in proportion as they are more exterior, and the outer one on each side has only a part 

 of its inner web next the quill black. The bristles at the angle of the mouth and round 

 the nostrils are blackish-brown, and the lores are a little dusky ; but there is a narrow whitish 

 frontlet. A dull umber-brown band commences at the nostrils, and, passing backwards so as 

 to include the eye, terminates on the side of the neck. 



Under surface. — The cheeks, throat, breast, and belly, are ash-grey, crossed by semi- 

 circular lines of clove-brown, generally two on each feather. The vent feathers and under 

 tail coverts are soiled white, a few of the longer of the latter being obscurely barred on their 

 ends. Both mandibles are pale horn-colour at the base, gradually becoming bluish-black to- 

 wards the tips. Legs pitch-black. 



Form, &c. — Bill much compressed, with a strong and abrupt tooth near its hooked point. 

 There are six strong bristles at the corner of the mouth, and the oval, longitudinal nostrils 

 are concealed by short bristly hairs. The wings are moderately long, reaching within an inch 

 and three-quarters of the end of the tail. The fourth primary is the longest ; the third is half 

 a line shorter ; the fifth is a line shorter than the fourth ; the sixth is about five lines shorter 

 than the fifth ; the second is two lines shorter than the sixth *, or half an inch shorter than 

 the third ; while the first is shorter even than the secondaries, and is an inch and a quarter 

 shorter than the second primary. The tail is cuneiform, the exterior feathers being nine 

 lines shorter than the middle ones. Hind toe robust and a little longer than the lateral 

 ones. Claws much compressed. 



Dimensions 



Of the female. 



Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. 



Length from the tip of the bill to the end of Length of the bill, from the angle of the 



the tail 11 mouth . . ... 1 1 



,, of the tail .... 5 ,, of the tarsus . ..11 



,, of the longest quill feather .46 „ of the middle toe ... 8 



„ of the bill measured along its ridge 9 ,, of its claw .... 3£ 



A specimen, to every appearance a male, killed at Penetanguishene, on Lake 

 Huron,, corresponds with Wilson's figure above quoted, except that the frontlet 

 is whitish in our bird, instead of black as in the figure. It differs from the female 

 described above in the general colour of the dorsal aspect, which is pearl-grey, 

 with a slight tinge of yellowish-grey, approaching very nearly to the colour of the 

 European L. excubitor and to the subject of the following article. The frontlet is 

 whitish, and the lateral mark on the head is pitch-black, and extends farther back 

 than in the female. The wing and tail feathers are of a deeper black, and the 

 white speculum and tips of the secondaries are more conspicuous than in the 



* In the specimen preserved in the Hudson's Bay Museum, the second quill feather is two lines longer than the 

 sixth, but has the same relative length with regard to the other feathers. 



