,388 BRITISH BIRDS. 



brilliant, and mixed here and there with feathers of the 

 first plumage. The feathers of the breast and belly 

 are all broadly tipped with brownish-black, giving these 

 parts a mottled appearance. Immature birds of the third 

 year (May), about twenty-six months old, are similar 

 to the adult, but less brilliant. No mention is made of 

 the colouring of the eyes of the young or immature birds. 

 The description of my white-breasted example is as 

 follows : — Upper-surface — head, hind-neck, back and 

 upper tail-coverts dusky-brown, glossed with bronze- 

 black ; scapulars and most of the primaries and 

 secondaries ash-grey, the scapulars and secondary coverts 

 margined with bronze-black ; median and lesser wing- 

 coverts variegated with brown, grey, and whitish-buff, 

 the latter being old worn feathers. A few new feathers 

 scattered over the whole of the wings are of a purplish - 

 brown suffused with greenish-bronze and margined with 

 blackish. The tail-feathers are of two different ages. 

 The central pair are bronze-black with pale shafts ; the 

 next pair, only two-thirds grown, are richer bronze- 

 black, with white tips and black shafts ; the remaining 

 ten are old, with faded light buff outer webs and pale 

 shafts. The whole of the under-parts are white ; throat 

 and lower neck speckled with brown and buff, many new 

 feathers. The breast and belly to vent pure unspotted 

 white, mostly new feathers. Sides under the wings, flanks, 

 and thighs deep chocolate-brown, mottled with bronze- 

 black, forming a sharply defined line the whole way down 

 the sides just below the wings, appearing at a short distance 

 as if the entire under-parts were white, the bird looking 

 at a distance like a gigantic Guillemot. On the thighs 

 a patch of a few white elongated feathers, like those of 

 the full breeding-plumage. Bill horn-brown, lower edge 

 of upper mandible and the whole of the base and under- 

 surface of lower mandible pale flesh colour ; the naked 

 skin round^ the eye dull lemon-yellow, below the eye 

 and surrounding base of bill and gular skin is all brilliant 

 chrome-yellow. Irides of a beautiful rich and rather deep 



