284 COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. 



lower nmndihle with a ridge and several stria, the edges little 

 inflected, and the commissure grooved beneath ; the head and 

 neck deep hluish-grcen glossed with imrple ; a patch on the 

 throat, and a broad ring, incomplete in front, on the neck, of 

 white longitudinally streaked tcith black; the vppcr parts 

 black, the middle of the back and the scapidars with quadran- 

 gular, its fore and hind parts, and the wings ivith small round 

 ivhite spots, of which there are tico on each feather ; the sides 

 of the loiuer neck streaked ivith tchite and black ; the loicer 

 parts white, but the sides black, spotted with white, and a nar- 

 row dusky band across the hind pi art of the abdomen. 



Male in Summer. — This beautiful bird, the largest of 

 its genus, has the body of great bulk, elliptical, and much 

 depressed ; the neck long and thick ; the head of moderate 

 size, oblong, anteriorly nan-owed. The bill, as long as the 

 head, is almost straight, stout, much compressed, tapering, 

 and pointed ; the upper mandible with the dorsal line gently 

 descending, slightly convex beyond the middle, the ridge con- 

 vex, the sides nearly erect, little convex, the edges sharp, 

 little inflected, the tip narrow and rather bluntly pointed ; 

 the lower mandible with the intercrural space very long and 

 narrow, with a groove continued beyond the junction of the 

 crura, which have their lower outline nearly straight, their 

 sides nearly erect, Avith numerous fine strise at the base, and 

 a prominent ridge near the edge, the dorsal line ascending 

 and straight, the edges sharp and little inclinate, the tip 

 acuminate ; the gape-line slightly arcuate. 



The mouth is of moderate width, but extensile, the gape- 

 line commencing under the eyes ; the palate flattened, Avith 

 six series of reversed papilla? ; the tongue two inches in length, 

 fleshy, trigonal, tapering, longitudinally grooved above, Avith 

 the point slender and horny. The oesophagus, seventeen 

 inches long, is two inches and a-half in Avidth along the neck, 

 but contracts considerably in entering the thorax, and again 

 enlarges ; its Avails thin, Avith the outer layer of circular and 

 the subjacent layer of longitudinal fibres very distinct, the 

 inner or mucous coat plicate. The proventricular portion 

 three inches long, its transverse fibres very strong ; the glan- 



