WHITE-BODIED GRAKLE. 153 
and variability of the scale-like feathers of the body; 
renders it quite a gem among birds. The colour of 
these feathers are metallic, and all the same ; but 
with this difference, that in some lights they appear 
of the richest purple, and in others of the deepest 
lilac, so as to appear almost red. Our modem sys- 
tematists have left this bird under the old genus 
Turdus, probably from not having seen it ; and no 
author that we are aware of has described the fe- 
male, which from its great dissimilarity of plumage 
might well be taken for a different species. We 
can vouch however for the fact, that the difference 
is only sexual, having received both as male and 
female ; and having seen a young male in its first 
plumage (which is always like the mothers), but 
having already assumed some of the more brilliant 
plumes of its manhood. 
The form is altogether typical of the genus, and 
exactly the same as that of the preceding species, 
but the inner web of the quills has no indented 
sinuosity ; the tail is very short and quite even. 
The male has the whole of the head, neck, breast, 
back, middle tail-feathers, and- the greatest part of 
the wings, of a rich soft satiny appearance, — of the 
deepest and richest blue, glossed with purple when 
held from the light, but which changes to a fire- 
coloured red, resembling lake, when the bird is held 
between the light and the spectator. This colour, 
upon the lesser quills and the lateral tail-feathers, 
oniy covers those parts which are exposed ; the rest, 
and the whole of the primary quills, are black. From 
