LONG-TAILED GRAKLE. 149 
first describer, supercedes any apology for abandon- 
ing a name which has neither priority nor peculiar 
fitness to recommend it. 
This is a most striking and splendid bird, not so 
much in the variety of colours on the body plumage, 
as for its long fan-shaped tail, a character which 
prevents it from being confounded with any of those 
here described, or mentioned by other writers. 
Like some others of its congeners, it seems to make 
annual migrations from Western Africa to those 
regions lying towards the Cape of Good Hope. 
The form is decidedly rasorial, not only in the 
tail, but in the wings and legs. The former is 
rounded, having the first quill half as long as the 
second, and the third shorter than the fourth, while 
the tarsus is longer in proportion than in any of the 
birds already described. The tail is considerably 
graduated ; there is the difference of an inch, more 
or less, between the length of the three outer 
feathers, while the middle pair exceeds the others 
by more than three inches and a half. 
The colour, with the exception of the head, which 
is brown, glossed with yellowish copper colour, is 
shining blueish-green, which becomes purple on the 
lower part of the back and rump, and also on the 
body, belly, and vent beneath. There is a large 
black velvet spot on the greater and lesser wing- 
covers ; these, however, are not seen in the young 
bird, which has also the head more violet than 
coppery. The most splendid hues are upon the 
tail; the ground colour being rich purple, blue 
