354 



SYLVilD.E. 



brown, the feathers in the male, however, being grey at 

 the base ; the line over the eye is reddish-buff and the 

 black on the sides of the head in the male disappears ; the 

 wing-coverts and quills are broadly edged with • rufous-buff ; 

 the lower parts of the body are more deeply tinged with 

 russet; the bhack of the lower wing-coverts is almost con- 

 cealed by their broad, light edges, and the tail is tipped 

 with buft'. 



This plumage remains till the next moult ; but in the 

 following spring the change from the brown to the grey and 

 black is effected by the wearing off of the brown tips and 

 edges of all the feathers that were previously so coloured ; — 

 an illustration of one of the modes by which changes of ap- 

 pearance are caused. These brown fringes disappear from 

 the quills of the wings before that colour is lost on the upper 

 parts, on which the change is gradual, and many shades of 

 difference may be observed, some birds changing more rapidly 

 than others ; but the change produced by the moult is rapid 

 and general, affecting all alike. 



Th3 Wheatear varies very much in size. Of specimens 

 examined by the Editor, those from Sinai are the smallest, 

 and those from Greenland the largest, the difference between 

 them in the length of the wing being nearly half an inch ; 

 but nearly as much is observable in examples obtained in 

 this country. The whole length of an average English adult 

 is six inches and a half. From the carpal joint to the end 

 of the third and longest quill, three inches and seven-eighths : 

 the second a little shorter than the fourth, but much longer 

 than the fifth. 



The vignette represents the breastbones of the Nightingale 

 and the Wheatear. 



