SOMATERIA LABRADORIA. 211 



occurs certainly twice ; and perhaps some persons might doubt the identity 

 in the last case, though I do not. 



Wilson continues :— " It is only seen here during winter ; most 

 commonly, early in the month of March a few are observed in our market. 

 Of their principal manners, place or mode of breeding, nothing more is 

 knowm. Having myself had frequent opportunities of examining both sexes 

 of these birds, T find that, like most others, they are subject, when young, to 

 a progressive change of colour. The full-plumaged male is as follows : — length 

 20 inches, extent 29 inches ; the base of the bill and edges of both mandibles 

 for two thirds of their length are of a pale orange -colour, the rest black ; 

 towards the extremity it widens a little in the manner of the Shoveller's, the 

 sides there having the singularity of being only a soft, loose, pendulous skin ; 

 irides dark hazel ; head and half of the neck white, marked along the crown 

 to the hind head with a stripe of black ; the plumage of the cheeks is of a 

 peculiar bristly nature at the points ; and round the neck passes a collar of 

 black which spreads over the back, rump, and tail- coverts ; below this collar 

 the upper part of the breast is white, extending itself over the whole 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries ; the primaries, lower part of the 

 breast, whole belly, and vent are black ; tail pointed, and of a blackish hoary 

 colour ; the fore part of the legs and ridges of the toes pale whitish ash ; 

 hind part the same, bespattered with blackish ; webs black ; the edges of 

 both mandibles are largely pectinated. In young birds the whole of the 

 white plumage is generally strongly tinged with a yellowish cream-colour ; 

 in old males these parts are pure white, with the exception sometimes of the 

 bristly-pointed plumage of the cheeks, w^hich retains its cream-tint the 

 longest and, with the skinny part of the bill, form two strong peculiarities of 

 this species. 



"The female measures 19 inches in length and 27 inches in extent ; bill 

 exactly as in the male ; sides of the front white ; head, chin, and neck ashy 

 grey ; upper parts of the back and wings brownish slate ; secondaries only 

 w^hite ; tertials hoary ; the white secondaries form a spot on the wing, bounded 



