1. MOTACILLA. 



477 



have brown "wings and others have white ones ; the latter are the 

 adults after their second winter has been passed. 



After haviuf,^ gone through his first summer, the male bird moults 

 into his second winter dress, this time putting on a grey back, but 

 a black head, and beiug white underneath, with the black crescent 

 on the fore neck ; the black line through the ej^e is very distinct, 

 and there is still a trace of yellow to be seen on the face or throat. 

 The wings change, however, in a remarkable degree. The lesser 

 wing-coverts are at first grey like the back, but rapidly become 

 black ; the median and greater coverts are pure white ; the bastard- 

 wiug and primary-coverts are white, with more or less black on the 

 outer webs; the quills are nearly all white, and the primaries have 

 black shafts, a certain amount of black on their outer webs, and black 

 euds with a narrow friuge of white at the tips ; the shorter prima- 

 ries and the secondaries are white, excepting for a dusky blackish 

 spot at the end of each web, the inner ones pure white, the longer 

 ones being blackish, externally more or less ashy brown, with a 

 broad white edging. The outer tail-feathers are pure white, ex- 

 cepting a fringe of black along the inner web of the penultimate 

 one, the third, however, showing an irregular patch of white on the 

 inner web and a white shaft. 



In the second spring of its existence the full summer plumage is 

 again resumed, with the black throat and black back; but the wing- 

 feathers and tail are not shed; and the only difference is that the 

 black gradually disappears on the primaries till they become nearly 

 Avhite, excepting the ends, which are still blackish. 



Wing of adidt M. higcns, witli the white quills fully developed. 



The female goes through the same changes of plumage as the 

 male, but is always more backward, never showing so much white 

 on the wing, having the back mixed with black, &c. 



Adult male in full plionaye. General colour above black from 



