4020 The Zoologist — June, 1874. 



brown, shafts white ; lore and chin yellowish flesh, tarsi and feet 

 dull flesh-colour. Female killed in August. — Upper surface dark 

 smoky brown, with a greenish glint on the head and neck, 

 scapulars terminating in a deep green spot; back dark brown, 

 changing to dark green ; under surface while ; throat and anterior 

 of neck pale ash, leaving a broad stripe of white from the base of 

 the upper mandible below the eye as far as the wing ; lore and chin 

 (of fine texture) dull, ratlier yellowish flesh-colour ; tarsi and feet 

 dull flesh-colour. Males of the same age present no observable 

 contrast in their plumage to that of the other sex. When this shag 

 is about a year old the membranous processes, which are such con- 

 spicuous features, gradually lose their former texture, and become 

 coarsely granulated ; dark green spots are sparingly doited on the 

 wing-coverts, the throat assumes a darker hue, the while shafts of 

 the tail-feathers are exchanged for rectrices with shafts of slaty 

 black ; the two centre feathers are the first to be replaced ; tarsi 

 and feet lake a more decided tinge of yellow. In all these changes 

 there is a remarkable want of constancy, so that to note down all 

 the variations that may be observed in an extensive series would 

 exceed all reasonable limits for such a paper as this. 



In the nuptial plumage this common bird becomes one of the 

 handsomest of our sea-fowl ; the great and striking alteration con- 

 ferred by snow-white accessory plumes that decorate the head lasts 

 but a short time in perfection in either sex, and gradually moults 

 away into the more sober garb of the summer plumage. In the 

 month of August adult birds have the head greenish brown, 

 sparingly interspersed with narrow white feathers; immediately 

 above the forehead rises a tuft of dark brownish green feathers, while 

 another of the same shade forms a long irregular crest just above the 

 nape; this inclines forward, reminding one of a clown's toupet ; on 

 either side a line of snow-white feathers, more or less produced, ex- 

 tends from above the eye to the wing, meeting in a broad band below 

 the nape ; upper surface brownish gray, marked with deep green 

 spots; back deep glossy black-green; throat blackish green; under 

 surface leaden gray ; lower abdomen, tail, and thighs deep glossy 

 black-green; thighs often sprinkled with narrow white plumes, 

 which, like those on the head and neck, are of temporary duration ; 

 mandibles horn-colour; lore bluish purple, the eye-circlet of tur- 

 quoise-blue; chin greenish, often bluish purple, deepest at the 

 point; tarsi and feet yellow. 



