GRALLATORES. 399 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a female killed at Great Bear Lake, May 25, 1820. 



Colour. — Top of the head, back of the neck, scapulars, tertiaries, and some of the inter- 

 mediate coverts, striped and spotted on the margins with ferruginous, that colour forming 

 transverse bars on the longer scapulars and tertiaries. Wing coverts and secondaries clove- 

 brown ; the former narrowly edged with white, the latter striped on the borders and shafts 

 with the same. Greater quills blackish-brown, shaft of the first one white. Middle and hind 

 parts of the back white, the rump marked with round spots of blackish-brown, which, on the 

 tail coverts^ change to transverse bars. Tail crossed by nine blackish-brown bars, alternating 

 with white ones, that are tinged on the central pair of feathers with ferruginous. Super- 

 ciliary stripe, and whole under plumage, buff-orange. Sides of the head minutely spotted 

 with dark-brown, crowded into a stripe on the lores. Front of the neck, sides of the breast, 

 flanks, and tail coverts, marked with scattered round spots of the same, larger, and forming 

 bars under the wings. Inner wing coverts barred with white and clove-brown. Bill and 

 legs wax-yellow ; the tip of the former blackish. 



Form. — Bill straight, compressed at the base, with a rounded ridge ; grooved to near the 

 tip, which is depressed and dilated like the bill of a Snipe, and is minutely pitted, when dry, 

 with a central furrow in both mandibles ; tip of the upper one rather acute, projecting beyond 

 the lower one, but not bent down. The epidermis of the base of the bill above is transversely 

 wrinkled. Wings equal to the even tail. The central pair of tail feathers are occasionally 

 slightly longer than the rest. Middle and outer toes connected to the first joint by a web. 



The sexes are alike in plumage ; the dimensions of the females being greater. Specimens 

 killed towards the end of July, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, have the posterior part of the 

 belly and the under tail coverts white ; the latter barred with black. None were seen in the 

 winter dress described by Temminck. A male, killed on the 26th of July, at Hudson's Bay, 

 and consequently after its summer moult, had the upper plumage, breast, and inner wing 

 coverts, as described above ; the belly, vent, thigh feathers, and under tail coverts, white ; the 

 black spots as above. This specimen, when recent, was nine inches and a half long. 









Dimensions 

















Of the female. 













Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin. 



Length, total 



11 



6 



Length of bill to rictus 



2 



4i 



^"3 



Length of hind toe 



3 



„ of tail 



2 



6 



,, of tarsus . . 



2 



e;3 



°4 



,, of hind nail . 



.0 2 



„ of wing 



. 5 



8 



,, of middle toe . 



. 



11 



,, of web 



31 



., of bill above 



2 



6 



„ of middle nail 



. 



-4 



,, of naked thigh 



1 



— R. 



