COLYMBIDJE. 527 



dusky, nearly black ; the face and chin white ; there 

 is a frill of long feathers all round the face, bay at 

 the base and shaded to black at the tip ; back of the 

 neck, back and all the upper parts dull dusky brown, 

 some of the feathers margined with pale ash-grey ; 

 the wing-coverts are without the margins; the 

 secondary quills are white ; primaries dusky brown ; 

 the fore part of the neck, the breast and belly are 

 silky white ; the flanks and thighs mixed bay, dusky 

 and white ; the tail if such it can be called, for it is 

 very rudimentary is tlie same colour as the back ; 

 the legs and toes are dark on the outer surface and 

 pale yellowish green on the inner. The plumage of 

 another bird in my collection, which was shot in 

 Torbay in the winter, is as follows : The head and 

 ear-tufts are dusky ; the lore dusky ; over this and 

 over the eye to the face, the face and frill white, ex- 

 cept the tips of the frill, which are clouded with pale 

 dusky ; all the rest of the plumage much the same as 

 in the other bird, except the flanks and thighs, which 

 are mixed dusky and white, without any of the bay. 

 I always considered this the winter plumage, as all 

 the birds I had seen about the south coast of Devon, 

 either alive or recently killed, were in the same 

 plumage : Yarrell, however, does not make any dis- 

 tinction between summer and winter plumage ; and 

 Meyer describes a bird of two years old as very much 

 like this last-named bird of mine ; so it may be a 

 second -year bird, but it is certainly odd that so great 



