SMEW. 507 



lines ; legs, toes, and their membranes bluish- and lead-grey. 

 The whole length is seventeen inches and a half : the wing, 

 from the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather, 

 seven inches and three-quarters. 



An adult male, which belonged to the Ornithological 

 Society of London, lived more than two years on the lake 

 in St. James's Park, assumed the colours of the plumage of 

 the adult female before the middle of June, remaining in 

 that state during the summer, and reassumiug his white 

 plumage at the regular autumn moult. This bird associated 

 only with a female Golden-eye. 



Adult females have the bill and the irides of the same 

 colours as those of the males, with a black patch at the base 

 of the upper mandible ; all the top of the head reddish- 

 brown ; down the back of the neck a streak of ash-grey, 

 which extends to form a collar at the bottom, and spreads 

 thence over the space before the wings and on the upper 

 part of the back ; centre of the back, the rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, and tail-feathers greyish-black : point of the wing 

 ash-grey ; smaller wing-coverts pure white ; greater coverts 

 and secondaries black, tipped with white as in the male, but 

 the two white bands are narrower; primaries nearly black; 

 inner secondaries lead-grey ; chin, throat, and all the under 

 surface of the body, pure white ; legs, toes and their mem- 

 branes, lead-grey. Females are considerably smaller than 

 males, measuring but fourteen inches and a half in their 

 whole length, and but six inches and a half from the point 

 of the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather. 



Young males resemble females for the first twelvemonths, 

 and do not assume their white plumage till their second 

 autumn moult. Young females have no black patch on the 

 side of the head during their first winter ; the red colour 

 on the back of the neck covers a larger space ; the white 

 colour of the smaller wing-coverts is mixed with ash-grey, 

 and the under surface of the body is of a dull white. 

 Females probably assume the black patch on the lore, and 

 the more pure white colour on the wing-coverts, at the 

 second autumn moult. 



