SNOW-BUNTING. 13 



partner, but the white on the head and the rest of the upper 

 parts is much more mottled with black and dusky, and her 

 colours are not so pure. 



The young, in its first plumage, has the bill yellow, dark at 

 the tip of the upper mandible, the head, sides of the neck and 

 the back are of a greyish-olive, variegated towards the rump 

 with reddish-brown ; the white of the wings is also tinged, 

 and the quills of both wings and tail are bordered with the 

 same colour ; the throat and lower parts are dirty white, 

 tinged on the throat and belly with pale yellow, and on the 

 breast and flanks with reddish-brown. 



The adult male, on its arrival here towards winter, as 

 figured at the head of this article, has the bill yellow, 

 darker at the tip : top of the head and the ear-coverts more 

 or less covered with deep reddish-brown on a white ground ; 

 the feathers on the back black at the base, with broad ends 

 of pale reddish-brown ; the wings much as in the summer- 

 plumage except that the tertials are broadly bordered with 

 dull chestnut ; upper tail-coverts black at the base with 

 broad ends of pale reddish-brown or, in some examples, of 

 white, and hardly shewing any of the first colour ; the tail 

 as in summer ; all the lower parts dull white, more or less 

 tinged with reddish-brown on the breast and flanks. In this 

 state it has been called the Tawny Bunting ; when present- 

 ing less white than the figure here given, it is in the state 

 called the Mountain-Bunting. 



The female at the same time, figured by Bewick as the 

 Tawny Bunting, has the top of the head dull chestnut- 

 brown, which becomes paler on the nape; the whole upper 

 surface mottled with blackish-brown and dull chestnut ; 

 the wings shew but little white except at the tip of the 

 lesser coverts and the base of the secondaries ; the white 

 of the tail is less bright ; the chin and throat are dull 

 chestnut, becoming deeper in tone across the upper part 

 of the breast, the rest of the lower surface dull white. 



The whole length of the male is about seven inches. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather, 

 four inches and a quarter. The females are a little smaller. 



