POLYBOROIDES TYPICUS.
or brownish red lines. Legs and toes light ochre-yellow; claws liver-brown
with a tinge of reddish brown towards the base. Bill liver-brown ; cere, base
of lower mandible, naked space on sides of head, and the eyes yellow.
(Young.) P late LXXXII.
Front yellowish white sparingly streaked with umber-brown; the uppet
surface of the head and the nape light umber-brown, the feathers of former
broadly, those of latter narrowly edged and tipped with yellowish brown ; the
back and sides of the neck, the interscapulars, the back, the lesser wing coverts
and the secondary quill coverts intermediate between umber and yellowish
brown and faintly glossed with purplish red,—all the feathers narrowly edged
and tipped with yellowish brown. Primary quill coverts liver-brown with a
purplish gloss, and tipped narrowly with yellowish brown; tertiary quill
feathers dull yellowish brown indistinctly barred with umber-brown. Tail
the same colour as the primary quill feathers and crossed with four dull
yellowish brown bars, each of which is edged anteriorly and posteriorly with
a lighter tint,—the tips of all the feathers yellowish-brown. Chin and throat
yellowish white variegated with longitudinal umber-brown streaks; breast
and belly yellowish brown deadened with umber-brown; thighs, vent and
under tail coverts pale yellowish brown barred with a colour intermediate between
umber and yellowish brown. Tarsi yellowish white; toes a livid
ochrey white. Cere, base of lower and edges of upper mandible towards base
yellow, the bill elsewhere liver-brown. Eyes yellow.
F orm, &c.—Figure slender; head rather small, and its sides before and
behind the eye denuded of feathers; the feathers of nape and of the back and
sides of the neck rather elongated. Wings long, pointed, and when folded
reach to within two inches of the tip of the tail, the fourth and fifth feathers
the longest, the third and sixth equal and rather, shorter, the second about an.
inch and a half shorter than the third, and the first about three inches shorter
than the second. Tail large and rounded, or fan-shaped. Tarsi and toes ex-,
cept the last joint reticulated, the scales of the former rather large, of the latter
small, the last joint of each toe superiorly covered with three or four short
prominent transverse plates ; tarsi compressed; under-surface of toes finely
granular; claws long, pointed, mueh curved, compressed and moderately
strong. Bill considerably hooked at the point; nostrils situated in the cere
in the form of a longitudinal fissure about half-way between the culmen and
cutting edge of the upper mandible.