BRITISH BIRDSa 
6i 
iineft feeling, and calculated by that means, aided, 
perhaps, by an acute fmell, to find the fmall worms 
in the foft moift grounds, from whence it extrads 
them with its fharp-pointed tongue. With the bill it 
alfo turns over and tofles the fallen leaves in fearch 
of the infects which fhelter underneath. The crown 
of the head is of an afli colour, the nape and 
back part of its neck black, marked with three bar^ 
of rufty red : a black line extends from the cor- 
ners of the mouth to the eyes, the orbits of which 
are pale buff ; the whole under parts are yellowifh 
white, numeroufly barred with dark waved lines. 
The tail confifts of twelve feathers, which, like the 
quills, are black, and indented acrofs with reddifh 
fpots on the edges : the tip is afli-coloured above, 
and of a glofly white below. The legs are fhort, 
feathered to the knees, and, in fome, are of a blue- 
ifli caft, in others, of a fallow flefh colour. The 
upper parts of the plumage are fo marbled, fpotted, 
barred, ftreaked and variegated, that to defcribc 
them with accuracy would be difficult and tedious. 
The colours, confifting of black, white, grey, afh, 
red, brown, rufous and yellow, are fo difpofed in 
rows, crofled and broken at intervals by lines and 
marks of different fliapes, that the whole feems to 
the eye, at a little diftance, blended together and 
confufed, which makes the bird appear exactly like 
the withered ftalks and leaves of ferns, flicks, mofs 
and graffes, which form the back ground of the 
