Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/447

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APPENDIX IV.
439

of a fine golden yellow. All the feathers of the wing are more or less deeply margined on the exterior web, as well as tipped with yellow, of which there is a patch in the middle of the wing. The two middle feathers of the tail are black, with the extreme tips yellow. The next on each side is still more deeply tipped, and also margined on both webs with yellow. The rest have the base of their shafts black. Legs dusky, perhaps lead colour, claws dark. The principal difference of this bird from that in the Gen. Syn. Vol. I. p. 449, appears to be, that in this every feather is marked with yellow, while in Dr. Latham's bird, this only occurs "here and there." The tail is also very different, though the general character of the bird, and the disposition of its plumage, sufficiently point it out as a variety only of the galbula; but that bird surely belongs to the thrush, rather than to the Oriole genus?

No. 12. Picus Abyssinicus. Abyssinian Woodpecker.

Length barely six inches. Size rather above that of P. minor. Bill blackish horn-colour from the tip to the gape, which reaches under the eyes, measuring one inch; but to the feathers of the front only five eighths. The forehead and face are a dingy olive brown, rather more inclined to whitish about the eyes and cheeks. The crown of the head, and hind part of the neck, as far as the back, bright red, bounded on each side of the neck by a narrow white streak. The rump and upper tail coverts are also red, and the latter appear to hang low upon the tail. The lesser wing coverts and the back are yellowish olive, becoming nearly yellow towards the rump; rest of the wing dingy olive brown obscurely barred with dusky, and spotted with dirty white along both margins. These spots on some of the outer margins are yellowish. The exterior quill is nearly half an inch shorter than the third, or longest, and for one inch from the tip its outer margin is entirely plain: but all the quills have constantly one spot more on the inner than on the outer edge of the feather. The tail is barred above with olive white and dusky, but below the white becomes of a dingy yellowish colour, and the shafts both of the tail and quills are yellow; the former deepest in colour. The two outer feathers of the tall on each side are rounded at the ends, the third nearly so, but the shaft a little prominent and sharp; the rest of the usual shape, and the middle feathers about half an inch longer than the outmost. The whole under parts are of a dirty white, sometimes a little tinged with olive, and broadly streaked down the shaft of each feather. It has dusky legs, and dark claws.

No. 15. Alaudo Chelicuti.—Chelicut Kingfisher.

Length six inches and a half; bill, from the tip to the gape, which is exactly under the eyes, one inch and three eighths. The upper mandible is reddish horn colour, the lower reddish at the base, with the point dusky. From the eyes to the nostrils is a narrow whitish line: above this the feathers are long, and rather of a loose texture, dusky brown edged with lighter, more particularly towards the