542 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
19th of December, had the head and neck in more 
perfect summer plumage: the head was greenish 
dusky; the chin was white; the throat and sides of 
the face to the eye were white, much mixed and 
streaked with black; one of the black and white 
patches on the throat was perfectiy visible, but was 
gradually assuming the mottled appearance of the 
rest of the neck; the rest of the plumage as in the 
last-mentioned bird. Mr. Sanford’s bird, shot at 
Ninehead in the winter (he could not give me the 
exact date), is in the same state of plumage. Another 
specimen, killed at Teignmouth in the winter, is in 
the plumage in which these birds almost invariably 
occur on that coast: there is more of the pale colour 
about the bill; the top of the head and back of the 
neck are dark dusky; the chin and throat white, 
mixed on the lower part of the throat with dusky ; 
all the upper parts have the feathers very dark dusky, 
almost black, broadly margined with pale grey; the 
margins on the wing-coverts are much narrower; all 
the under parts are white; the legs, toes and webs 
are paler than in the other specimens. The legs are 
very strong, flat and sharp, presenting but little sur- 
face against the water, but very broad sideways: 
there is much difference between the outside and 
the inside of the leg, the outside being always 
much darker, presenting much the same difference 
as between the upper and under parts of a flat- 
fish. 
