GRALLATORES. 397 



tinged with green, the narrow tips and roundish marginal spots dilute wood-brown. Middle 

 and hind part of the back dark clove-brown, with pale edgings. Broad transverse band on 

 the rump, the base and tip of the tail white; middle of the tail and ends of its longer coverts 

 black; central pair of tail-feathers tipped with broccoli-brown. Two middle rows of wing- 

 coverts liver-brown with pale edgings, the others clove-brown. Primary coverts and quills 

 blackish-brown ; the latter, except the first four, white at the base under the coverts, and 

 tipped, particularly the posterior ones, with white. Shafts of all the primaries white to near 

 the tips. Under plumage posterior to the neck, deep chestnut-brown ; the breast marked 

 with roundish black spots, the belly with undulated bars, which become much broader pos- 

 teriorly and on the tail coverts ; the posterior under plumage is also tipped with white, and 

 the two longest under tail coverts are white, with two black marks. Under wing coverts 

 blackish-brown tipped with white ; long axillaries, and the lesser coverts surrounding them, 

 unspotted pitch-black. Bill dark umber above and at the point ; flesh-red elsewhere. 

 Legs black. 



Form, typical. — Bill slightly pitted near the point when dry, and rather more curved 

 upwards than that of L. fedoa. Wings equal to the tail, which is forked to the depth 

 of a quarter of an inch, the central pair of feathers being, however, as long as the outer 

 pair, thus producing a double emargination *. The margins of the toes not so tumid as 

 in the latter bird. 



The males are a little smaller than the females, and moult earlier in the season. The 

 females have the chestnut colour of the under plumage less pure, more tipped with white 

 and barred with black, and the nails of their middle toes are more frequently dentated ; there 

 is, however, much variety in this latter respect, some birds having three or four notches in the 

 claw, while in others there are none at all. In one of our female specimens there are three 

 distinct notches on the middle claw of one foot, and only one on the corresponding claw of 

 the other foot. 



A female, killed at Fort William, Lake Superior, now in the collection of the Zoological 

 Society, appears to be in the autumnal plumage. Upper surface dark broccoli-brown, 

 the neck above and below, and part of the wing coverts, paler ; the scapulars and tertiaries 

 edged on the tips with soiled yellowish-brown, and crossed by ill-defined sub-terminal bars 

 of greenish clove brown. Breast and flanks yellowish-grey; belly, under tail-coverts, and 

 thighs, white. Posterior part of the back, rump, tail, and rest of the plumage, as described 

 above. 



Dimensions. 



Length, total . 



Male, 

 Inch. Lin. 

 . 15 6 



Female. 



Inch. Lin. 



18 



Length 



of naked thigh . 



Male. 

 Inch. Lin. 

 . 1 4i 



Female. 

 Inch. Lin. 



l t; 



,, of tail 



. 3 



3 



3 



6 



?) 



of tarsus . 



2 



3 



2 4i 



,, of wing . . 



8 







8 



6 



?) 



of middle toe 



1 



3 



1 3 



,, of bill above 



. 3 







3 



7 



)> 



of middle nail . 



. 



3 



3 



„ of bill to rictus 



. 3 



1 



3 



n 



„ 



of hind toe and nail 







H 



Si 



— R. 



This double forking is constant in all the specimens. 



