HARLEQUIN GARROT. 173 



Progress toward Maturity. — The females have their 

 colouring- completed at the end of their first year ; but the 

 males not until the fourth. In the second year the male has 

 the upper parts of the body and wings greyish-brown, the 

 lower parts brownish-grey ; the head and neck dull leaden- 

 blue. The white patch before the eye is partially mottled 

 with grey, as is the white band over the eye, and the occiput 

 is margined with dull reddish-brown. The round white 

 spot behind the ear, and the elongated white mark on the 

 neck, are formed ; but the white collar is only indicated by 

 markings on the tips of the feathers, and the band on the 

 lower fore-neck by a patch on each side before the wing. 

 There is a little white on some of the scapulars, but none on 

 the secondary quills ; the primaries and tail-feathers are grey- 

 ish-brown ; the upper tail-coverts black. 



In the third year the tints approximate to those of the 

 adult bird ; the white markings on the neck are edged with 

 black ; the upper parts are dull greyish-blue, the lower paler ; 

 the sides tinged with red. 



Remarks. — In this species the bill is proportionally nar- 

 rower, and has the unguis much larger than in Clangula 

 chrysophthalma. In the latter respect it more resembles the 

 next genus, with which it might with equal propriety be 

 associated. In fact, were differences not greater in degree 

 than those assumed as indicative of generic distinction among 

 the Land Birds, to be considered as of equal validity among 

 the Cribratores, almost every species would make a genus. 



