ANSEB GAMBELI AS A BRITISH BIRD. 341 



As the same conditions of environment prevail when the young 

 bird has got his first feathers to those of the breeding period, it 

 is equally necessary for the young to be darkly clad. We find 

 plenty of instances of this in the cases of the various kinds of 

 Ducks, Guillemots, Razorbills, Dunlins, and other shore birds, 

 where the first plumage after the downy stage closely resembles 

 that of the adult breeding-dress. 



The whole of the under parts, then, in this young bird, from 

 the breast to the abdomen, are a deep blackish umber, fringed 

 with pale drab. The flanks not quite so dark in colour, but 

 fringed with a darker drab. The mantle is dark umber, with 

 pale, faded brown margins ; rump very dark umber ; upper tail- 

 coverts — central ones dark umber, fringed with dirty white; outer 

 ones dark umber on one side of the rib, dirty white the other. 

 Tail blackish umber, margined with dirty white. The forehead 

 extending to the eyes ; loral region and front cheeks a dull black, 

 with a few indistinct white feathers scattered around base of bill 

 and forehead ; the rest of the head and neck a dark drabish 

 umber, darkest on top and back of neck ; the front lower neck a 

 lighter drab. The wing-coverts graduate from the slaty drab of 

 the extreme outer ones to the blackish umber of the medians, 

 faintly fringed with paler; the primary coverts are a slaty umber, 

 broadly margined with white. Primaries blackish umber, with 

 white shafts ; secondaries almost black with a very delicate hair- 

 line margin of drab. The alula and base of primaries slaty drab. 

 Abdomen and under tail-coverts dull white. The legs, toes, and 

 webs a pale chrome-yellow, with a tinge of umber. Bill a dirty 

 whitish yellow with a few streaks of blackish on ridge and side. 

 Nail whitish at base, blackish at end streaking into the white. 

 Iride dark hazel ; eyelid brownish yellow. 



Length 29|- in.; weight 5 lb.; bill 1*98 in.; tarsus 2*75 in.; 

 wing 15f in. 



Anser albifrons. — Immature male, just beginning to pass from 

 first to second stage. Shot Co. Mayo, January, 1892. 



It is a pity I have not got the absolutely first plumage of this 

 bird ; however, the only traces shown of the second stage are a 

 few large feathers on the flanks, and a larger sprinkling of white 

 on the forehead ; it may practically be taken as a first-plumaged 



