Bill blackish-brown above, greenish-grey beneath. Iris hazel. Feet flesh-colour. General colour of the upper parts deep green, tinged with brown. Head and lower parts light brownish-yellow, the former with four longitudinal black bands, of which one on each side proceeds from the middle of the upper mandible, the other from the inferior angle of its base. The lower part of the neck anteriorly, and the fore part of the breast are more yellow than the rest of the under parts; the abdomen and under tail-coverts nearly white.
Length 5½ inches, extent of wings 8½ ; bill along the ridge 7/12, along the gap ¾; tarsus ⅚, middle toe ¾.
Adult Female. Plate XXXIV. Fig. 2.
The female hardly differs from the male in external appearance.
The American Poke-weed.
Phytolacca decandra, Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. i. p. 322. Pursh, Fl. Amer. vol. i. p. 324. —Decandria Decagynia, Linn. Atriplices, Juss.
This species is distinguished by its elliptico-lanceolate leaves, and decandrous flowers, the other species differing in the number of stamina and one of them being diœcious. The berries, which are nearly globular, are disposed in an elongated, pendulous raceme, and are of a purplish-black
colour. The flowers are white, their peduncles, partial and general, of a bright carmine-purple colour.
