586 GAVIA ATRICILLA. 



grey ; a Hack crescent before the eye, and a grey patch behind 

 it. In summer, the colour similar, but the head and part of 

 the neck blackish leaden-grey, the loicer jiarts tinged luith rose- 

 colour. Young with the bill and feet olive-broivn ; the upper 

 parts broivnish-grey, variegated with paler ; the first fowr quills 

 without white at the end; the tail pale greyish-blue, unth a 

 broad band of brownish-black at the end, and narroicly tipped 

 with white ; loioer parts greyish-white, the neck brownish-grey, 

 axillars ash-grey. 



Male in Winter. — The proper country of this species is 

 North America, and the following description is taken from 

 specimens procured there, the instances of its occurrence in 

 Britain being extremely few. It is a little larger than our 

 common Gavia ridibunda, and precisely of the same form, 

 having the body compact, the neck of ordinary length, the 

 head broadly ovate, much narrowed anteriorly. 



The bill is rather shorter than the head, moderately stout, 

 compressed, slightly arcuate, pointed ; the upper mandible 

 with the dorsal line moderately decurved beyond the nostrils, 

 which are linear-oblong, the tip narrow, rather obtuse, with 

 a slight sinus on the margins ; the lower mandible with the 

 angular prominence rather conspicuous, the dorsal line 

 ascending and slightly concave, the sides erect and nearly 

 flat. 



The mouth is of moderate width ; the tongue slender, 

 trigonal, pointed, an inch and a quarter in length. The 

 oesophagus is six inches and a half in length, generally an 

 inch in width, within the thorax dilated to an inch and a 

 half; the proventricular belt seven-tAvelfths in breadth. The 

 stomach is oblong, an inch and a half in length, ten-twelfths 

 in breadth, with rather strong muscles, radiated tendons, and 

 dense, longitudinally rugous epithelium. The intestine is 

 twenty-two inches long, from four-twelfths to two-twelfths 

 in width ; the coeca three-twelfths long, and only half a 

 twelfth in breadth ; the rectum an inch and a half long, the 

 cloaca globular, an inch in width. 



The feet are of moderate length, rather slender ; the tibia 

 bare for three-fourths of an inch ; the tarsus compressed, 



