304 Norton, A Noteworthy Plumage of the American Ezder. hay 
result of receiving another very similar to it, and two adult drakes 
with black spots on the throat, located at the position of the 
junction of the two lines which form the lancet or V when present. 
On questioning several collectors who live on the Maine coast, 
I was assured that they had quite often seen such marks in young 
drakes. Upon the investigation of a large series of these drakes 
in all stages of plumage, it was found that this feature is of irregu- 
lar appearance, or, what is perhaps best understood, as an 
occasional reversion to the characters of a progenitor from which 
it sprung, in common with v-mzgra. 
It may be stated of the birds having the black figure, that, aside 
from the presence of that mark, their only departures from the 
typical adult male of their species, are fully shown to be coincident 
with stages of immaturity, and that they show nothing that can be 
considered as of a hybridic nature. 
Description of Specimens having Black Marks vn Throat. 
No. 342, Coll. A. H. N.; Penobscot Bay, Me., winter, 1891. Somateria 
dressert, male, nearly mature. Differing from adult male in having a 
few dusky tipped lesser wing-coverts; dusky tips to falcate tertials; 
frontal processes but .g mm. wide near apex. Differing from the normal 
drake in having a dusky V or lancet on the throat, 46 mm. long. This 
specimen is matched in a normal young drake preserved in the same 
collection. 
No. 439, Coll. A. H. N.; Penobscot Bay, Me., Dec., 1893. S. dresserz, 
male, nearly mature. Similar to the last, except in having more dusky 
tipped lesser coverts, falcate tertials tipped with a deeper shade of dusky, 
and frontal process 12 mm. wide. It differs from the normal drake in 
having a dusky lancet .38 mm. long, on the throat. 
No. 340, Coll. A. H. N.; Penobscot Bay, Me., Mar. 20, 1891. S. dresser?, 
male, perfectly mature. No dusky in white of the wing; frontal process 
14 mm. wide near apex. Differs from normal drakes in the presence of 
a dusky spot, 10 mm. long, on the throat. 
No. 341, Coll. A. H. N.; Penobscot Bay, Me., winter, 1891. S. dresserz? 
adult male in high (winter) plumage. Frontal processes 144 min. wide 
near apex. Normal except in the presence of a black spot 13 mm. long at 
the position of the apex of the lancet. 
