SNOWFLAKE. 467 



along the coast of East Lothian, they are sometimes, in spring, 

 nearly as common as Sparrows, and almost as familiar. About 

 Leith, where they are generally found in winter on the beach, 

 even close to the pier, they have a very different appearance 

 from that which they present in parts of the country remote 

 from towns, for their plumage is as much soiled as that of the 

 London sparrows. 



About the middle of April, or sometimes a week later, these 

 birds disappear, and betake themselves to their summer resi- 

 dence. The nest and eggs of this species are unknown to me> 

 and indeed have not hitherto been detected in Britain. 



Young. — The young, apparently unable to perform a long 

 flight, and flitting from crag to crag, I have once met with, as 

 above mentioned ; but as I had not a gun at the time, I can 

 only say that they seemed to resemble the young females in 

 their second plumage, but with more grey and less white. 



Progress toward Maturity. — When the flocks appear to- 

 wards the end of autumn, the males and females are coloured 

 as follows : — 



Male. — The bill is dull brownish-yellow, darker at the 

 point ; the feet brownish-black. The upper part of the head 

 dark chestnut, the cheeks and hind part of the neck light 

 chestnut, mixed with grey, the upper parts mottled with 

 brownish-black and reddish-brown, the centre of each feather 

 being of the former colour. The small wing-coverts are brown- 

 ish-white, with a central dusky streak ; the outer secondary 

 coverts also brownish-white ; alula and primary quills brown- 

 ish-black, edged w^ith greyish-white ; base of the latter white, 

 that colour extending on the inner, and occupying almost the 

 whole of several of the secondaries, although all of them have 

 either dusky or light brown towards the end, the three inner 

 without white, and like the back. Tail brownish-black, edged 

 with brownish-grey ; the three outer feathers almost entirely 

 white, there being only a streak from the tip, including part 

 of the outer web. The lower parts are greyish-white, the 

 throat, sides of the neck, a band across the fore part of thd 



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