63. LIMONITES. 541 



base; the secondaries dark brown, fringed with white at the tip, 

 and having the base of the inner webs white, forming a con- 

 tinuous band with the one on the greater coverts ; the long inner 

 secondaries light brown like the scapulars, with the shafts blackish 

 brown ; crown of the head brown like the back, with darker brown 

 centres to the feathers ; forehead and supra-loral region pure white ; 

 lores dusky brown ; ear-coverts and feathers below the eye light 

 brown, with narrow streaks of dark brown ; above the ear-coverts 

 a streak of white, lined with brown, forming an indistinct eyebrow ; 

 cheeks, throat, and under surface of body pure white or slightly 

 ashy on the throat and fore-neck ; sides of neck and of upper breast 

 brown, with slightly darker centres or shaft-streaks ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries white ; the coverts round the edge of the 

 wing dark browu, with white margins ; lower primary-coverts dull 

 ashy brown, forming an inconspicuous wing-patch : " bill, feet, 

 and claws black ; iris hazel " (H. Seebohm). Total length 5-2 

 inches, culmen 0'7, wing 3 - 8, tail 1*6, tarsus OS, middle toe and 

 claw 0*7 



Adult male in summer plumage. Much more rufous than in 

 winter, the whole of tbe feathers of the upper surface being sandy 

 rufous, with black centres and white margins to many of the 

 Bcapulars and feathers of the back ; head rufous, with black centres 

 to the feathers ; the neck also rufous, streaked with dusky blackish, 

 these streaks being smaller and less distinct on the sides of 

 the face, which are also rufous ; a slight indication of a whitish 

 eyebrow ; under surface of body white, tinged with rufous on the 

 throat, the chest pervaded with ashy, and both the throat, fore-neck, 

 and sides of breast mottled with dusky spots in the centre of the 

 feathers. Total length 6 inches, culmen 0-75, wing 3*8, tail 1*4, 

 tarsus 0"8. 



Adult female in summer plumage. Similar to the male, but some- 

 what less distinctly spotted on the breast. Total length G inches, 

 culmen 07, wing 3-85, tail 1-45, tarsus 0-8. 



Young. Blackish above, with rufous edgings to the feathers, and 

 thus somewhat resembling the summer plumage of the adults, but 

 they may always be distinguished by the more numerous white 

 edgings to the dorsal and scapular feathers, by the ashy colour of 

 the hind-neck, by the absence of spots on the fore-neck and chest 

 both of which are tinged with isabelline buff. 



Nestling. Mottled with rufous and black down, the tips of which 

 are silvery white or sandy buff; the hind-neck sandy buff, forming a 

 collar ; the crown of the head black, slightly mottled with rufous 

 and dotted with silvery white, the black extending in a line on tho 

 forehead, which is butf, continued into a somewhat broad eyebrow ; 

 a black loral line and a black spot on each side of the hinder crown 

 as well as on the ear-coverts ; under surface of body whitish, with 

 a tinge of sandy buff on the lower throat. 



Hab. Nesting in Northern Europe and Siberia, occurring to the 

 eastward as far as Lake Baikal. Wintering in Africa, the Indian 

 Peninsula and Ceylon. 



