£38 HOODED MERG WISER,
formed of grass and other herbage, lined with feathers and down
from the breast of the mother-bird.
The eggs, eight or ten in number, and of a yellowish white colour,
are laid in May, and hatched in June.
Male; length, one foot six or seven inches; bill, clear reddish
brown, the tooth black; iris, golden yellow. The head ou the crown
is surmounted by a half-circular hood, from whence the name of the
bird. It is spread out flat-wise or closed at pleasure. According to
Wilson, the crest is composed of two separate rows of feathers, radiating
from each side of the head, and easily separable. This hood,
as well as the remainder of the head, is dusky black, with purple
and green reflections, with the exception of a large somewhat triangular
shaped patch or spot of pure white, bordered on the outside
with black, behind the eye. This is more conspicuous when
the crest is spread from about it. Neck, also dusky black, with
metallic purple and green reflections. Breast, white, with two crescent
shaped streaks of greenish black, coming forwards on its upper
part from the like colour on the back; the sides and flanks yellowish
rust-colour, and finely pencilled with yellowish brown and black;
back, deep dusky blackish brown.
Greater wing coverts, glossy greenish black-, tipped with white, the
b a s e s also white; lesser wing coverts, deep brownish black. Primaries,
dee]) brownish black. The secondaries, deep brownish black, and having
the outside borders white, are crossed with a bar of white, the bases
also white; tertiarics, metallic greenish black, the shaft-streaks white.
Tail, brownish black. Legs and toes, clear reddish brown; webs, dusky.
The female is rather less in size. Length, not quite one foot and a
half. The bill, which is slender, is clear reddish brown. Head on the
crown, reddish brown, the feathers elongated at the occiput in a
semicircular manner, verging into pale reddish brown; the remainder,
and the neck and nape, pale brown, the front of the neck paler, the
edges of the feathers being lighter coloured. Chin, greyish white,
speckled with pale brown; throat and breast above, brown, deeply
margined with grey; below, white, the sides brown with paler edges
to the feathers; back, brownish black.
flic wings, when closed, only reach to within three inches of the
end of the tail. The secondaries have the outside edges of the outer
webs white, forming a small speculum. The tail consists of fourteen
feathers, and is deep brown. Legs and toes, clear reddish brown.
The young at first resemble the female. The male obtains some
white on the head in the second year, but is not complete in plumage
till the third.