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 perfectly 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, fiat and sharp, presenting but little sur- 

 face against the water, but very broad sidewa} T s : 

 there is much ditference 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 fiat- 

 fish. 



