MEALY BEDPOLE. 
121 
Its food is said to consist of the seeds of various forest 
trees. 
The egg is described by Meyer as being pale greenish 
blue, sprinkled over with pale but distinct spots of a reddish 
brown colour, some of them inclining to lilac, chiefly confined 
to a zone around the larger end. 
Male; length, five inches and a quarter or a third; bill, 
dull yellow, the upper part brown above; between the bill 
and the eye is a black space, dull in the winter; iris, 
dusky brown; the bristly feathers at the base of the bill 
are yellowish grey. Forehead and crown, red, duller in the 
autumn, and in winter the forehead is white or reddish, 
marked with a black band, and the crown dusky, the 
feathers tipped with yellowish grey, and some of them with 
red; the back of the head is pale reddish white, streaked 
with black in the centre of each feather; the sides, in the 
autumn, are slightly tinted with red, and greyish or brownish 
white in the winter, streaked with a darker brown. Neck, 
in front, red, in winter greyish white; on the back it and 
the nape are pale reddish white, tinged with brown and streaked 
with black in the centre of each feather; chin, almost black; 
throat, black, in the winter brownish black; breast, pale 
brownish or greyish white, streaked, excepting on the middle, 
with darker brown; it is pale red in spring and summer; 
above red, below and on the sides whitish, streaked and 
tinged with brown. Back, light yellowish brown, streaked 
with blackish, the feathers edged with whitish or dull reddish 
in winter; on the lower part it is red, but in the autumn 
greyish white, faintly tinged with red and streaked with 
brown. 
The wings have the three first feathers almost equal, but 
the second the longest; greater wing coverts, dark brown, 
with broad ends of dull white, forming a conspicuous bar; 
lesser wing coverts, tipped with dull white, forming another 
short bar; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brown, broadly 
margined with whitish grey, the latter more broadly than 
the former. The tail, long, dark greyish brown, the feathers 
broadly margined with white, the two centre ones are much 
shorter than the rest, making the tail deeply forked; upper 
tail coverts, greyish white with a few dark streaks, after the 
autumn slightly tinted with red; under tail coverts, pale 
greyish white, with a few dark brown streaks; legs and toes, 
dusky; claws, brownish black. 
