20 
GREAT PLOYEK. 
to the grey flints that surround them, thus being very difficult 
to detect. They are generally two in number, but sometimes, 
it is said, three; the third being for the most part not hatched. 
They vary in size and colour, some being a dull yellow, and 
the spots much less clearly defined than in others. 
Male; weight, about seventeen ounces; length, one foot 
five or six inches; bill, dusky black at the point, the rest 
greenish yellow; from the base of the upper mandible a light- 
coloured streak passes backward under the eye, and from the 
base of the lower one a brown one underneath. Iris, large 
and prominent, golden yellow—a dark line encircles it; behind 
it is a small space bare of feathers of a yellowish green, mostly 
concealed by the ear coverts. Head, large and thick, on the 
sides white; on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, pale 
tawny brown, each feather with a streak of black in the centre; 
the neck in front, pale brownish white, each feather streaked 
along the centre with blackish brown. Chin and throat, white; 
breast, nearly white, but yellowish, the feathers streaked with 
blackish brown. Back, pale tawny brown, each feather with 
a blackish brown longitudinal streak. 
The wings have the first and second quills nearly equal in 
length, and the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing 
coverts, pale tawny brown, each feather with a brownish black 
line along the shaft; primaries and secondaries, nearly black, 
the first and second with a broad white patch towards 
the end across each web, the former the larger—the seventh 
and eighth slightly tipped with white; tertiaries, pale brown, 
each feather with a brownish black line by the shaft. The 
tail, of twelve feathers and wedge-shaped, is on the inner half 
mottled with two shades of brown, the third part reddish white, 
with bent bars, and the end black; the outside feathers shorter 
than the middle ones, which are not tipped with black. The 
three outermost feathers the lightest coloured, and the bars 
darker. Upper tail coverts, pale brown, with a dark mark by 
the shaft of each feather; under tail coverts, buff white. The 
legs, which are long, and toes, yellow, with a greyish tinge—- 
the outer toe is connected with the middle one as far as the 
first joint by a membrane; claws, nearly black. 
The female resembles the male bird. The legs thick below 
the knee joint. 
The young are at first covered with a variegated grey down, 
which gradually gives way to the proper plumage. 
