THE WHEATEARS. 201 



Adult Female. — Duller in colour than the male, being every- 

 where browner, but with the same white rump and tail-markings; 

 base of forehead slightly paler brown than the head ; the fore 

 part of the eyebrow brownish-white, the hinder part purer 

 white ; lores blackish ; ear-coverts brown ; under surface of 

 body pale sandy-buff, lighter on the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts ; under wing-coverts and axillaries dusky brown, with 

 white edgings. Total length, 5-8 inches; wing, 3*5. 



Young. — Light chocolate-brown above, mottled all over with 

 dusky blackish edgings to the feathers; the head and neck lighter 

 brown, mottled with terminal spots and streaks of sandy-buff; 

 lesser and median wing-coverts blackish, spotted with sandy- 

 buff at the ends ; the greater coverts and quills broadly edged 

 with rufous ; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers 

 tipped with rufous ; ear-coverts dark brown with sandy-buff 

 streaks ; under surface of body sandy-buff, lighter on the throat 

 and abdomen ; the fore-neck and breast mottled with dusky 

 margins to the feathers ; bill light brown, the lower mandible 

 and gape yellow. After the autumn moult the young birds re- 

 semble the old females, but are more rufous, especially under- 

 neath. 



Range In Great Britain. — A summer visitor, arriving early in 

 March, and breeding throughout the British Islands, but much 

 less frequently in the southern and midland counties than it 

 does in the north. The birds which arrive in March are 

 smaller in every way than those which arrive in April, about 

 a month later; but the question of the differences between 

 these two races and their geographical distribution has never 

 been satisfactorily explained. The later arrivals always seem 

 to us to be browner, as well as larger, than the first arrivals ; 

 and it is this large form which passes through the Shetlands 

 and Iceland on migration, and breeds in Greenland. Colonel 

 Feilden even noticed it as high as 8o° N. lat. 



Range outside the British Islands. — A nearly circumpolar bird, 

 breeding in the high north throughout Europe and Northern 

 Asia, but only on the higher ground in Southern Europe. 

 The winter home of the Wheatear extends from the North- 

 western Himalayas to Persia, and also to North-eastern and 

 Eastern Africa, as well as to Senegambia. 



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