490 COLYMBIDiE, 



chin aud throat dark grey ; a long triangular patch of vinous 

 chestnut down the middle of the fore-neck ; top of the head obscurely 

 mottled with blackish ; nape, hind-neck, aud sides of the lower 

 neck blackish with a slight gloss, each feather margined on the 

 sides with white, producing a strongly streaked appearance ; feathers 

 of the sides and flanks, a band across the vent, and most of the 

 under tail-coverts dark ash-brown like the back ; chest and rest of 

 iinderparts white ; quills dark brown, white towards the basal half 

 of the inner web. Tail dark brown, composed of from 18 or 20 

 feathers. Ridge of the culmen slightly concave. Iris dark brown ; 

 bill black ; legs blackish brown, with a greenish tinge on the 

 outside and along the toes, middle of webs yellowish flesh-colour. 



Adult in non-breeding ])lumnge. General colour above dark ash- 

 brown, each feather with paired white spots on the terminal 

 margin ; forehead, top of the head, and back of the neck dark ash, 

 edged on the sides with white, and producing a finely mottled and 

 slightly streaked appearance ; sides and flanks much like the back ; 

 sides of the face, chin, throat, and rest of underparts pure white ; 

 quills and tail-feathers brownish black, the latter tipped with white. 



Total length about 24 inches, culmen from feathers on forehead 

 2-1-2-25, wing lO-y-11-7, tail 1-9-2-1, tarsus 2-9-3, outer toe and 

 claw 3-5-3-8. 



Nestling. Covered with sooty-brown down, paler on the under- 

 parts, which become white as the bird grows older. 



Young in first plumage have the upper parts much like those of 

 the adult in winter, but the feathers are edged, rather than spotted, 

 with white; the forehead, crown, aud hind-neck are mostly dark 

 brownish slate, and the feathers of the fore-neck are fringed with 

 brownish at the extremity, j)roducing a more or less mottled 

 appearance. 



In the adult the change of the head and neck from winter to 

 summer plumage is produced by a spring moult. Some of the dark 

 ash-brown feathers of the upper back are also renewed at this 

 season, but the partial or total disappearance of the white spots 

 from the upper parts is almost entirely due to abrasion. 



At the autumn moult the whole of the worn feathers of the 

 upper parts are cast and replaced by the beautiful pearled feathers 

 of the winter plumage ; the summer plumage of the head and neck, 

 as well as that of the underparts, is also cast and replaced by new 

 feathers. 



Hah. Circumpolar ; ranging south in winter to the Mediterranean, 

 Black, and Caspinn Seas, and Southern China; and on the American 

 continent to California and the Gulf of Florida. 



a. d fid. sk. Rashua, Kurile Is., June Seebohm Coll. 



(O. Snoiv). 



b. 5 imm.sk. Hakodadi, Japan (r.i?/ri'7v7Vo»). Seebohm Coll. 



0. Ad. sk. Nagasaki. F. Riuger, Esq. [P.J. 



d. Ad. sk. Ha)nilton I., Corea. A. G. Wilday, Esq. 



[P.]. 



e, f. Ad. sk. Amoy, China, winter [R. Seebohm Coll. 



Sivinhoe). 



