80 
recumbent along the frontal platCj evidently for tbe protection of its tender edges ; cubitus perfectly bare 
and flesh-coloured ; legs dusky cinereous. 
No. 4 (more advanced stage). Body covered with sooty down ; a line of soft pale blue feathers on each 
side of the fore neck and breast; stiff white filaments on the crown and sides of the head; bill black, with 
a whitish spot in its median portion and also at the tip of the upper mandible. 
No. 5 (partially fledged) . Head, nape, and upper parts generally blackish brown, edged with paler 
brown, tinged on the scapulars and wing-coverts with blue ; throat and abdomen dusky brown; fore neck 
and breast pale blue ; all tbe plumage fluffy, and with downy filaments adhering to the feathers; soft tuft 
under the rudimentary tail pale fulvous. 
No. 6 (fully fledged). Head, hind neck, and upper surface blackish brown, with numerous touches of 
lighter brown, and tinged on the wings with blue ; chin pale brown ; fore neck, breast, and sides dull 
mazarine-blue, some of the feathers edged wuth fulvous brown ; abdomen pale fulvous brown ; under tail- 
coverts yellowish white ; iridcsbrowm; bill brownish black, inclining to red towards the base and on the 
frontal plate ; legs dai’k brown, with a reddish tinge. 
Obs. As already shown, the colours of the bill and legs are regulated by conditions of age and sex ; but they 
likewise differ somewhat in richness in individual examples of the male. The intensity of the blue colouring 
in the plumage is likewise variable ; and in some specimens it extends right up to the bill, being perfectly 
bright on the cheeks and chin. 
Varieties. The bird figured as Porphyria stanleyi in Mr. Dawson Rowley’s Ornithological Miscellany ’ is 
undoubtedly a mere albino of this species, exhibiting a few straggling feathers of a dark hue. There is a 
beautiful albino in the Colonial Museum, the entire plumage being snow-white, without even a tinge of 
colour in any part ; bill and feet very pale red. 
The following is the description of a partial albino obtained at Manawatu, and now preserved in the 
Colonial Museum : — The head, neck, and sides of the breast as in ordinary examples, except that the nape is 
freckled with pale brown and white; breast, sides of the body, abdomen, and flanks brownish white, clouded 
and obscurely banded with pale blue ; under tail-coverts white ; upper parts of the body brownish white, 
clouded and blotched with dark brown, excepting on the rump, where the brownish white is uniform ; the 
primaries are dingy white, crossed at the base, and again in their apical portion, by a band of bluish brown, 
the inferior ones tipped also with brown ; the coverts are white, washed with yellowish brown and obscurely 
banded with darker brown ; outer edges of wings bright blue ; tail-feathers brownish white, their coverts 
dark brown; bill and frontal plate as in ordinary examples; legs pale yellowish red.— Another, not 
unlike the last mentioned (also preserved in the Colonial Museum), has the plumage of the back, wings, 
breast, and abdomen entirely creamy wdiite and brown, the former preponderating ; tail-feathers and the 
under coverts pure white ; bill and feet yellowish red. There is a similar sport of nature in the Canterbury 
Museum, difi’ering, however, from the bird just described in the larger amount of white on the back and in 
the darker colour of its w'ings. In this specimen the head and neck are spotted with white, and the under- 
parts are handsomely variegated with pale blue on a whitish ground. — Another, in the Otago Museum, has 
merely a few white feathers in the wings and tail ; whilst a spcchnen in my own collection has the head 
and upper half of neck bluish black, with numerous scattered white feathers, which are thickest on the crown ; 
the whole of the upper surface dull yellowish brown, clouded and barred on the mantle, wings, and tail with 
darker brown, and shading into blackish browm on the back and I’ump ; the quills tawny white with broad 
transverse bars of brownish black flushed with blue ; fore neck, breast, and sides dark brown, with obscure 
crescentic markings of lighter brown, and flushed all over with pale blue ; abdomen and femorals dull tawny 
brown, with numerous rayed markings of darker brown ; under tail-covcrts white. Bill and legs pale red. 
Another remarkable specimen, which I presented to the Colonial Museum, is somewhat similar to the 
above, but is several shades darker, except on the head and upper part of neck, the plumage of the breast 
and underparts being sufiTused with blue; the back and mantle blackish brown, with dull crescents of 
yellowish brown ; the quills and their coverts more clouded with brown, and the wings at their flexure, as 
well as the bastard quills, washed with blue. 
In both the last-mentioned specimens there is what may be termed a break in the plumage halfway down 
the neck, the head being appreciably darker than the body -plumage in one and as much lighter in the other. 
