18 THE BIRD WATCHER 
brown-dun colour, ti®re being not the slightest ap- 
proach to a lighter collar, or any lightness elsewhere, 
except, as in every bird, without exception, on the 
quill feathers of the wings as seen in flight. 
(7) In another bird the breast and ventral surface 
is of a delicate silvery cream, or creamy silver, some- 
thing like that on the same parts of the Great Crested 
Grebe. On the sides of the neck, and just below the 
chin it is the same, perhaps a little less silvered ; but 
between these two spaces, and so between the chin 
and breast, a zone of faint brown or dun, somewhat 
broken and cloudy, pushes itself forward from the 
wings, thus breaking the continuity of the light 
surface by the strengthening of a tendency which is, 
perhaps, just traceable even in the lightest specimens. 
Besides this, a similar clouded space is continued 
downwards from the back of the head, first in a 
diminishing quantity, and then, again, broadening 
out, till it joins the upper body-colour. So that here 
only a little of the nape is white, hardly more than 
what may still be described as the two sides of the 
neck. This is a very pretty and delicate combination. 
(8) Close beside this last bird (No. 7) is a uni- 
formly dark brown one; and 
(9) Not far off, on the other side of it, one 
which exhibits the same sort of general effect, in 
a dark, smoky dun. This latter bird would generally 
pass as representing the dark form, and, with fluctua- 
tions in either direction, dark or light, it does 
represent the common form. Nevertheless, it is 
