Male; weight, about twelve ounces; length, one foot four inches,
to one Toot four and a half; bill, fine orange at the base, in winter
pale yellowish brown, the tip black—it is bent a little upwards, and
is three inches and a quarter long; from it to the eye is a dark streak,
the effect of some small black spots on feathers of a reddish brown.
I r i s , dusk)T ; over it is a white patch; forehead, pale reddish white;
head on the sides, pale reddish brown; on the crown, reddish brown
streaked with black; neck, pale reddish brown. Chin, reddish white;
throat and breast above, pale reddish brown, in winter paler, transversely
barred with brownish black; below white, barred at distant
intervals with pale reddish brown and blackish brown. Back, almost
black, each feather margined and barred with orange reddish brown
tinted v ilh purple; in winter it is pale brown, the feathers darker
along the centres.
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater and
lesser wing coverts, deep brown, the edges paler, deeply margined
with white, shewing at the tips, forming a bar crossing the wing;
primaries, blackish brown on the outer webs and tips, shading nearly
to white on the inner, the shafts strong, broad, and yellowish white,
with some white also at the base of all except the second, forming a
bar across the wing; tertiaries, long and clear brown, darker along
the centres, and sometimes more or less variegated with orange red,
the edges being lighter-coloured. The tail, which is slightly forked,
is black, the bases of the feathers for one third of their length white,
increasing gradually on each from the centre ones to the outside,
where the black scarcely covers more than half an inch of the end;
upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, white. The legs, which
are hare of feathers for a considerable space above the knee, are, as
the toes, blackish grey; claws, black.
The young, before the first moult, have the streak over the eye
wdiite; crown of the head, blackish brown, each feather margined
with pale reddish brown; neck, greyish ash-colour, tinged with reddish
brown; chin, wdiite; breast above, greyish ash-colour, tinged with
reddish brown; below it is wdiite, clouded with greyish ash-colour;
back, brownish black, each feather being margined with reddish brown.
(Ireater and lesser wing coverts, greyish ash-colour, margined and
tipped with reddish white; primaries, white at the base. The tail is
white at the base; upper and under tail coverts, white.
The plate is after a design by the Rev. R. P. Alington.