Plumage dense, soft, blended. Feathers of the upper part of the head small and rather compact, of the rest of the head and neck small, blended, and glossy. Wings shortish, narrow, pointed; primary quills strong, tapering, the first longest, the second almost as long, the rest rapidly diminishing; secondary quills broad and rounded, the inner elongated and tapering. Tail very short, much rounded, or wedge-shaped, of fourteen feathers.
Bill light greyish-blue, with a broad band of black at the end, and a dusky patch anterior to the nostrils. Iris orange-yellow. Head and neck all round, for more than half its length of a rich brownish-red, glossed with carmine above. A broad belt of brownish-black occupies the lower part of the neck, and the fore part of the body, of which the posterior part is of the same colour, more extended on the back than under the tail. Back and scapulars pale greyish-white, very minutely traversed by dark brownish-grey lines; the sides and abdomen similar, the undulations gradually fading away into the greyish-white of the middle of the breast; upper wing-coverts brownish-grey, the feathers faintly undulated with whitish toward the end. Primary quills brownish-grey, dusky along the outer web and at the end; secondaries ash-grey, narrowly tipped with white, the outer faintly tinged with yellow, and almost imperceptibly dotted with whitish, four or five of the inner of a purer tint tinged with blue, and having a narrow brownish-black line along the margin; the innermost like the scapulars but more dusky. Tail brownish-grey, towards the end lighter. Axillar feathers and lower wing-coverts white. Feet dull greyish-blue, the webs dusky, the claws black.
Length to end of tail 20 inches, to end of wings 18 1/2, to end of claws 22; extent of wings 33; wing from flexure 9 2/12; tail 2 8/12; bill along the ridge 2, from the tips of the frontal processes 2 4/12; tarsus 1 1/2, first toe and claw 10/12; second toe 1 10/12, its claw 5 1/2/12, third toe 2 5/12, its claw 4 1/2/12; fourth toe 2 6/12, its claw 3 1/2/12. Weight 2 1/2 lb.
Adult Female. Plate CCCXXII. Fig. 2.
The female has the bill of a dusky bluish-grey, with a broad band of black at the end, and a narrow transverse blue line, narrower than in the male. Iris yellow. Feet as in the male, the head and upper part of the neck dull reddish-brown, darker above, and lighter on the fore part of the cheeks and along a streak behind the eye. The rest of the neck all round, and the upper parts in general, are dull greyish-brown, the feathers paler at their extremity; the flanks and fore part of the neck dull reddish-brown, the feathers broadly tipped with pale greyish-brown. The wings are as in the male, but of a darker tint, and without undulations. The tail as in the male. Lower wing-coverts light grey, those in the middle white; middle of breast greyish-white, hind part of abdomen light brownish-grey.
Length to end of tail 21 inches, to end of claws 23 1/2; extent of wings 32 1/2. Weight 2 lb. 7 oz.
The following account of the digestive organs is taken from a British specimen, an adult male, examined by Mr Macgillivray in March 1836.
The tongue is 1 inch and 10 twelfths long, 6 1/2 twelfths broad, its sides furnished with two series of bristly filaments. The œsophagus is 11 inches long, with a diameter of nearly 5 twelfths at the top, 8 twelfths at the lower part of the neck. The proventriculus has a diameter of 9 twelfths; its glandules are cylindrical, and 2 twelfths long. The stomach is an extremely powerful gizzard, of an elliptical form, compressed, oblique, its length 2 1/2 inches, its breadth 1 3/4; its lateral muscles more than half an inch thick; the cuticular coat rather thin, but very tough, slightly rugous, with two circular thicker parts opposite the centres of the lateral muscles. The upper part forms a small sac, from which the duodenum comes off; the pylorus without valve. The intestine is 5 feet 4 inches long, narrowest in its upper part where its diameter is 4 twelfths, widest at the middle, where it is 6 1/2 twelfths, near the cœca 5/12. The rectum is 5 1/2 inches long, its diameter 6 twelfths; the cœca 7 inches long, nearly cylindrical, 4 twelfths in diameter, a little narrower at the commencement.
BLACK SKIMMER OR RAZOR-BILLED SHEARWATER.
Rynchops nigra, Linn.
PLATE CCCXXIII. Male.