both mandibles inclined inwards, the apex of the bill rather blunt, the bill
slightly curved from the base, and the culmen between the nostrils compressed
and carinated. Tarsi and toes rather strong, the former anteriorly
scutellated, posteriorly entire ; claws short, rather slender, pointed and much
curved, the claw of the hinder toe the largest.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches.
Length from the point of the bill to the
LW
Length of the tarsi ............................. 1 0
base of the tail................. 3 0 ‘ outer toe ........... ........... . 0 31
of the tail................................. 2 8 middle toe ....... ............. 0 ■ 6
bill to the angle of mouth 0 9 : 3 inner toe ............| .......... 0
wings when folded .......... 1 11 hinder toe ...... .............. o
The sex of the individual described not known.
The specimen of which the foregoing is a description, the only one I have yet seen, was
killed on the top of one of the mountains of the Kamiesberg, in Little Namaqualand. For
some time before it was shot, it was beheld flitting from bush to bush, occasionally perching
on their summits, at other times jumping rapidly to and fro among their branches, and as if
engaged in quest of insects, which were found to constitute its food.
In its general aspect, this bird has much of what characterizes birds of the group
Drymoica, but when its individual characters are closely surveyed, it is found to want that
which would entitle it to be classed among typical species; or, in other words, it exhibits what
requires it to be viewed as an aberrant form.
Aves.— P late CXI , F ig . 2 . F emale.
D. capita, cervioe supeme, interscapularibusque viridi-biunneia; dorso caudaeqne teotricibus supenonbus
pallide cinnamomeis; humerorum teotricibus pallide rnbro-brunneis, albo-margiuatis; mento, gu re,
pectore ventreque albis, nigro-brmmo-fasciolatis; capite parvo; xostro gracili versus apicem curvato.
L ongitudo e rostri apice ad basin caudse 3 unc. 2 lin; caudse 2 uno.
C olour.—The upper surface of the head, the back, and sides of the neck,
and the interscapulars, a colour intermediate between orange coloured
brown and oil-green; the back, the rump, and the upper tail coverts a tint
intermediate between hyacinth-red and yellowish brown. Shoulder coverts
light reddish brown with a tint of umber-brown, many of them broadly tipped
with pale cream-yellow or dirty white; primary quill coverts umber-brown,
secondary coverts umber-brown, broadly edged externally with the same
colour as that of the back, the tips pale cream-yellow which forms an oblique
bar of that colour on each wing. Quill-feathers brownish red, the outer vanes
toward their base edged narrowly with honey-yellow, towards and at tips
with dirty white. Sides of head speckled brown and rufous white ; chin and
throat pure white, variegated with short, narrow, transverse umber-brown
bars; breast and anterior part of belly sienna-yellow variegated with short
curved umber-brown bars; posterior portion of belly, flanks, vent, and under
tail coverts rusty ochre-yellow, the latter darkest. Tail feathers light reddish
brown with a tint of green, darkest immediately behind the narrow white
apex. Legs, toes, and claws, buff-orange shaded with light brownish red,
the legs and toes tinted with flesh-red. The upper mandible, and the lower
towards its point, liver-brown, the latter towards its base sienna-yellow.
F orm, &c—Head small, body moderately robust, wings rather large for
the size of the bird, rounded, and when folded reach to nearly the middle of
the tail, the first quill-feather about half the length of the second, the second
slightly shorter than the third, the third nearly as long as the fourth, which
is the longest; the tertiaries nearly as long as the longest of the primaries.
Tail fan shaped, the feathers rather silky, their points semicircular. Bill