116 SHQV L;I.I;U.
white, with streaks of brown. Legs and toes, reddish orange, yellowish
orange in summer; elaws, black; webs, darker reddish orange; in
summer yellowish orange.
The female has the head, crown, and neck on the back, pale reddish
brown of two shades, the shaft streaks being dusky; breast, pale,
brownish rufous, with dusky brown spots; back, dusky brown, the
edges and tips of the feathers of a paler tint, rufous white. Lesser
wing coverts, tinged with pale blue; the speculum green.
In the young birds at first the bill, which is scarcely larger than
usual in proportion to their size, is not dilated, but in three or four
weeks assumes its proper and peculiar shape. The young male resembles
the female till the autumn. Bewick says that the full plumage
is not acquired till after the second moult.
There were some dark spots on the white, in the specimen killed
near York.
The engraving is after a design by John Gatcombe, Esq., of Plymouth.
