454 
2 
ad basin et secundariis ad basin albis speculum formantibus, secundariis intimis albo marginatis, et 
tectricibus alarum majoribus albo apicatis: cauda ut in mare sed nigro-fusco nec nigro: corpore subtis 
sordidé albo. 
Adult Male (Altenkirchen, Rhenish Prussia). Head above, including the sides of the face and auriculars, 
back, rump, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts deep black; entire underparts pure white; on the fore- 
head a small white patch; quills blackish brown, the inner primaries white at the base, this colour 
increasing in area on the secondaries until the innermost ones have merely the terminal portion black ; 
larger wing-coverts broadly tipped with white; rump duller and greyer than the back; tail black, the 
three outer rectrices with two thirds of the outer web from the base white, on the outermost this colour 
extending over the shaft to the inner web; bill and legs black; iris brown. Total length about 5 inches, 
culmen 0°48, wing 3°05, tail 2°15, tarsus 0:7. 
Adult Female (Altenkirchen, 19th May). Upper parts dark hair-brown; wings blackish brown, the inner 
primaries white on the basal portion of the outer web, secondaries white at the base, making a small 
alar patch ; imner secondaries margined, and the larger coverts tipped with white; tail as in the male, 
but much duller in tinge; underparts dull white. 
Nestling (Belgium). Upper parts dull blackish brown, almost every feather with a terminal drop-shaped or 
almost round mark of dull clay-ochre; wings as in the female, but the coverts are marked like the 
back; undersurface of the body white, tolerably closely, but somewhat irregularly, spotted with 
blackish brown. 
Male in autumn (Highgate, 13th September). Differs from the male in spring plumage in having the upper 
parts dark sooty brownish instead of black; the white frontal patch is present, though somewhat 
obscured ; the wings and tail are as in the spring plumage; and the underparts are white, but slightly 
washed on the breast and flanks with buff. 
Obs. The younger males very closely resemble the females, and can only be distinguished by being some- 
what darker; when they attain the black plumage they have at first a rather smaller white frontal 
patch and less white on the wings. The full summer plumage is not worn for long; for I have a male 
from Piedmont, shot on the 21st April, which has the underparts in full summer dress, but the upper 
parts are still brown, variegated with black feathers, as these latter are pushing through every here and 
there; and in July they commence moulting, some being in full winter dress by the end of August. 
THE range of the present species does not extend far eastward beyond the limits of Europe 
proper, but during the winter it is met with in Africa at least as far south as the Gambia. 
In Great Britain it is met with during the summer season; and though locally distributed, it 
is not very rare in some parts of the country, being most frequently met with in the vicinity of 
the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Professor Newton, writing respecting its range in 
England, says (Yarr. Brit. Birds, i. p. 230), “‘ Pennant mentions an example of this bird killed 
near Uxbridge, in Middlesex; and a good many have since been observed in the same county, as 
well as in all those of the south and east from Cornwall to Norfolk. In the Midlands it appears 
more rarely; but it has been noticed once or oftener in Leicester, Derby, Stafford, Worcester, 
and Hereford. Further north its occurrence is less irregular; and in some parts of the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, Durham, and, as above stated, certain localities in the Lake district, it has 
its headquarters in England, though it also breeds yearly in a few places in North Wales, and 
