tip ; irides brown ; head from the base of the bill to the nape,
of a deep blackish-brown ; chin white ; the acuminate feathers
of the neck white, tinged with golden-yellow, sometimes
extending so as to form a : complete circlet ; mantle, wings,*
and tail dark brown ; the two öêntral tail-feathers extending
four inches beyond the ethers, and twisted -vertically ; shafts
of the primaries white ; underparts white in very old birds,
and with more or less of a striated brown chest-band in
others ; under wing-coverts, lower abdomen and under , tail-
coverts dark brown; legs and feet black. - The whole length
twenty-one inches ; wing from the anterior bend-fourteen
inches and a quarter.
In less mature birds the underparts are more , or less
striated ; and examples have been- obtained of a nearly
uniform sooty-brown, with iri yellow tint-on-'the acuminate
feathers of the neck, showing that they could not be very
young birds. Mr. ET Booth, who kept one of these melanie
, forms alive“ for some tirhe, has informed the Editor that
gradually became white on* its underparts ; but little is at
présent definitely known of the progressive stages of plumage
in this species, 'or of the age' at which it commences to breed I’
There is no external difference between ihersexes.-.'
In-the young bird; from which the second figure-is taken,
the cere and base4 of the bill are greenish-brown; the curved
point4 black ; the iridés very dark brown; feathers of the
head and neeM clove-brown, with narrow margins of wood-
browhl back, Scapulars,- tertials, and upper -tail-coverts
umber-brown, each feather margined with Wood-brown* 'these
margins'fbeing broadest on the tertials', the lower part o f the
back, and the upper tail-coverts ; great wing-coverts nearly
uniform umber-brown ; wing-primaries blackish-brown, the
shafts of these feathers and a considérable portion of the?
inner webs white1; tail-featthers umber-brown,, the" :two
middle tail-feathers in this young bird not more than half an
inch longer than" the'-next feather on.each^sicte^’ chin; throat,!
breast, belly, and vent mottled with buff-colouréd brown,*
produced bv narrow alternate transverse lines of clove-brown,;
and wood-brown ; under taibcdverts broadly barred across
with umber-brown and woodtbrown; legs and base pf the
toes yellow, anterior part of the. toes and their intervening
membranes black. ; The transition in the colour of the legs
and feet fs very.irregular, and Mr.iGatcombe. informs the
Editor that be had a , specimen in which one leg .was slater-
blue, below the tarsal joint, whilst the other was black,
The average weight of .this .Skua lb. 6 to 8 oz.
VOL. III.