much attached to them, that she may easily be taken, not only while
sitting on the eggs, but even after the young are hatched and fledged.
The same spot is resorted to year after year.
Male; weight, about ten drachms; length, about seven inches, or
seven and a half; bill, yellowish brown, inside more inclining to yellow;
iris, chesnut brown, a chesnut brown baud marked with black waved
hues, above which a whitish band runs from the base of the bill and
over the eyes, extends down to the sides of the neck; head, hoary
grey, with a tinge of yellow or white, most elegantly mottled, speckled,
striated, and barred with brown, the bars of an arrow-shape, and most
on the crown; head, on the sides, yellowish; neck, in front, pale yellow
brown, with narrow transverse black lines; nape, yellowish brown,
crossed with black lines, the feathers loose and rather long—a streak
of black mixed with brown runs down from it to the lower part of the
back; chin, white; throat, yellowish white and brown, with transverse
black bars; breast, yellowish white, paler below and on the sides, with
numerous arrow-shaped black spots, widening at the shaft, and running
along it to a point; on its sides it has a patch of brown; back, on the
middle part with the feathers black, on the central part the groundcolour
brown, and the lower part greyish, finely marked with black
lines and dots, with black shafts to the feathers, some of which are
ornamented with arrow-shaped marks.
The wings have the first and third feathers nearly equal in length,
longer than the fourth, and a little shorter than the second, which is
the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, as the head; primaries,
blackish brown, bordered with reddish brown, and barred alternately
with pale yellow, brown, and black; secondaries, brown, speckled with
yellow brown, and a few white spots; tertiaries, the same, with a line
of black. Tail long, and much rounded at the end; the colour is grey,
mottled with brown, and with four or five irregular black bars, which
are shaded with brown above and mottled with white below: they are
broadest at the shaft; underneath, it is pale greyish brown, barred and
speckled with black; upper tail coverts, grey, speckled with brown;
under tail coverts, dull white, tinged with pale yellow brown; the legs,
which are rather stout, bare of feathers to the knee, and covered in
front with large scales, toes, (two before and two behind,) and claws,
yellowish brown: they are sharp pointed, flattened on the sides, and
grooved beneath.
The female resembles the male, but the colours of her plumage are
not so bright, and the band on the back not so long as in the male.
She is also rather less in size.
The young are also lighter in colour. The iris greyish.