BXUEBREAST
below which it is dull white, and on the sides light reddish brown
or buff; back, brown.
The wings have the first feather very short, the second equal to
the sixth, the third, fourth, and fifth nearly equal, but the fourth the
longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, brown, the
margins paler; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brown, the outer
edges of the two latter lighter brown. The tail, which is rounded at the
end, extends one inch beyond the tips of the closed wings; the two
middle feathers brown, all the others bright chesnut on their basal
half, and the outer half nearly black; under tail coverts, light reddish
brown, inclining to grey; legs, pale brown; toes and claws, dusky
brown.
Female; iris, dark brown, over it is a yellowish white line; neck
and throat, on the upper part, white, bounded by a crescent-shaped
patch of dull blue mixed with some black, the horns of the crescent
directed upwards; this is followed by pale reddish brown, and lower
down by dull white, which also prevails on the sides. Tail, not so
bright as in the male.
Some old females almost equal the male in the brilliancy of thencolours.
The young arc at first brown, mottled with a paler shade. Head,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, dusky, with oval spots of reddish
brown along the shafts of the feathers; chin, the same. The
throat in the male has a large pale brown patch, indicative of the
future white or chesnut one; breast, dusky, with oval spots of reddish
brown along the shafts. Under tail coverts, whitish.
The young male resembles the adult female, the blue colour advancing
by degrees.
Individuals vary very considerably in colour, the tints being more
or less bright, no doubt according to age.