34 
Mr. Robert Collett on 
A. Specimens in Spring Plumage (March to May). 
a. Typical L. excubitor. 
One male. —No yermiculations; basal spot on secondaries 
large (29 mm.). Aker (Christiania), 2nd March, 1877. 
Two females. —One without, the other with, faint vermi- 
culations; basal mark on secondaries normal (in $ short, 
18-20 mm.) ; the white on first feather impure, being mixed 
with black. Aker, 3rd May, 1881; 19th April, 1882. 
b. Nearly typical L. major. 
One male. —Yermiculations comparatively distinct; indi¬ 
cation of basal spot on secondaries occurring as a short 
whitish-grey spot (10 mm.) on the third feather. Hamar, 
17th April, 1885. 
c. Typical L. major. 
One male. —No yermiculations; basal spot on secondaries 
absolutely wanting; plumage worn, only a few new feathers. 
Aker, 24th April, 1881. 
One female. —No yermiculations; basal spot on secon¬ 
daries indicated only by an almost imperceptible sprinkling 
of white on one single feather. Aker, 1st May, 1881. 
d. Intermediate between L. excubitor and L. homeyeri. 
One male. —Abdomen and rump entirely white ; first tail- 
feather white, with the quills black in the middle ; basal spot 
on secondaries long (30 mm.), extending beyond the coverts. 
Guldalen, near Throndhjem, 1st May, 1881*. 
* This specimen approximates L. homeyeri more than L. excubitor. In 
L. homeyeri the rump is described by some authors (Ibis, 1881, p. 51) as 
grey, by the majority, however, as white—a striking proof of the difficulty 
with which the characters admit of being determined in this as in the 
other forms. In the specimen from Guldalen the said part and also the 
abdomen and the tips of the secondaries are snowy white; the inner 
basal spot on the secondaries reaches to the middle of the feathers. 
Not improbably it was a similar individual that Seebohm has recorded 
from Krasnoyarsk, and regarded as a hybrid between L. leucopterus and 
L. excubitor (Ibis, 1882, p. 421). 
