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 hairline 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 29½ in.; weight 5 lb.; bill 1·98 in.; tarsus 2·75 in.; wing 15¾ in.
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
