172 
aBEENSHAKK. 
tail coverts, white, with a dusky spot or bar on each feather 
near the tip: the shafts are dusky; under tail coverts, white. 
Legs, very long and slender, and as the toes, bluish olive 
green; claws, dusky black. 
Rennie writes, ‘A very elegant variety, in the possession of 
Mr. Bullock, had the upper parts marked as usual, but darker, 
and the spots larger on the top of the head, back, and 
scapulars; the newly moulted feathers on the two last, known 
as such by their comparative brightness, were black, with 
the margins deeply and angularly scalloped with white; the 
markings strong, particularly on the tertials; tail coverts, 
white; the rump having a mixture of dusky black and grey 
in bars; the tail barred with zigzag lines; throat, white; fore 
part of the neck and breast, streaked and spotted with black, 
the spots increasing in size on the breast; middle of the belly, 
white, but feathers on the side barred with black; some of 
the under tail coverts plain white, others barred with black; 
the legs appeared to have been yellowish or pale green; size 
and length of the bill and legs as usual. It was not noticed 
at what season this bird was shot, but it was most probably 
in the spring, a little before its usual time of departure, and 
it had just begun to throw out its summer plumage on the 
back, scapulars, and wing coverts, where the spots were larger, 
and much better defined than on the old intermediate 
feathers.’ 
