216 ON BIRDS FROM THE NETHERLANDS. 
Old females in winter plumage have the lower breast and 
the upper vent pure white, the dark brown upper breast 
sharply defined from the white lower breast (plate 6, fig. 
e, 9). The lower vent and the under tailcoverts are dark 
brown, the feathers more or less edged with whitish, in 
most of the examples; only in one specimen, shot 14 Fe- 
bruary 1906 at Nieuwkoop (plate 6, fig. f), the under 
tailcoverts and the lower vent are white. 
In females of the first year the dark brown upper breast, 
the feathers of which are edged with whitish, is less clearly 
defined from the white lower breast; the vent and under 
tailcoverts are dark ashy brown, more or less broadly edged 
with white and also not sharply defined from the white 
lower breast (plate 6, fig. A). 
The amount of white feathers at the base of the bill 
varies much; in adult as well as in young females there 
are white feathers at the base of the bill; sometimes these 
feathers are almost wanting, both in old and in young females, 
Also the white on the chin varies considerably; in some 
specimens, adult and young ones, the whole chin is white, 
whereas in other ones white feathers are not to distinguish. 
Harelda hyemalis (L.). 
We received again several adult specimens in the last 
of December 1908 and in January and February 1909 
from Texel and den Helder, and besides these, two speci- 
mens shot on inland waters, viz.: a young male, shot 
3 November 1908 at Nieuwkoop, and a young female, shot 
18 November 1908 at Voorhout, province Zuid-Holland. 
Somateria mollissima (L.). 
Not less than 13 specimens I received last year. A 
male in change was shot 4 September 1908 on the shore 
of the province Zeeland, exact locality not given; in 
the beginning of January 1909 Messrs. H. Leyborne Popham 
and G. R. Peck presented to our collection 9 specimens, 
males in change and females, shot in the Veeregat near 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXI. 
