towards the outer, coverts & inferior. wing-c,overts ■ and axillary
.feathers white; quiU-feafhers plain grayi$h;i considerably lighter
Leneath, and with the shafts above darker; last of'the primaries
%nd first of:-the secondaries with two or three whiter dots -very
irregularly disposed, five o'r , s iti nearest »6® the body white on a
great part at tip, the last becoming, however, more • generally
grayish, and' only mottled with white; tertials, or rather scapulars,
blackish, very widely bordered,each side with different shades of
’^eUowish-fertuginpus, of whieh^the palest is outside, and .crossed
by the two narrow white lines, having besides a rudiment of. a
third, equidistant; these scapulars form a whole with the wing-
coverts, and the feathers of the back, being-of the;saihe^plour,
only somewhat more brilliant. Tail very short, feathers blackish,
each sid|.s ferruginous, with the two white lines, but in te rru p ted
and neiflier at the tip;, the tail a ltogethe^onc^led in its upper
and lower %oyerts; the upper are of the same colour, but have
only a jterannal white band, whilst the inferior are black at base,
and with a broad and vividly ferruginous tip.
, This is the most - brilliant specimen I have seen, and I must
declarej that it had all . the appearanoe of being adult. ' Others;
did:notj however, differ in anything except in having the colours"
duller and-less; d e c id ed n o r did I notice any .difference between
the .sexes, except a little in size, the- female being sinaller.
According to Y?ifeillot, however, the plumage I have so minutely
^ scribed could have beep- only that of. the young bird : hestaffes
the adult male to be different in colour both from*the adult female
and the young, but as the differences appear to consist more in the
language of; his imperfect description^ than in anything else> we
shall bestow no firther notice upon them.
.______________ mammsm