32 EMBERIZIDJE. 



mentioned a third is said to have been brought alive from 

 Moscow to Berlin. 



The adult male in full summer-plumage has the bill 

 greyish-yellow, with the upper mandible brown : the irides 

 yellowish-brown : the lores, ear-coverts and top of the head 

 black, with but a scanty trace of the pale median streak 

 along the vertex which at other seasons is very conspicuous ; 

 above and behind the eye a stripe of pure white passes 

 backwards, nearly meeting a white patch on the nape, 

 which is immediately succeeded by a collar of bright bay 

 descending on each side so as to encircle the throat ; the 

 back and upper wing-coverts are reddish-brown mottled with 

 black, the feathers of the former, with the scapulars, being 

 black near the shaft edged wdth bright bay and then more or 

 less broadly bordered with buff; the middle and lower wing- 

 coverts brownish-black with lighter borders and white tips, 

 forming two well-marked bars across the wing ; quills dark 

 brown with lighter edges, the two outer tail-quills on each 

 side having an oblique white patch ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts bright bay, the feathers bordered with buff; chin 

 black next to the bill, and, in some specimens, with an inter- 

 rupted black line extending downwards on each side from 

 the lower corner of the mandible, the rest of the chin and 

 throat white, as is the whole of the lower surface beneath 

 the bay collar, which sometimes passes into deep brown 

 on the median line and always forms a more or less 

 well-defined band across the upper part of the breast ; the 

 sides of the body and flanks broadly streaked with bright 

 bay : legs and toes flesh-coloured, claws somewhat darker. 



In winter the same bird has the feathers generally 

 broadly bordered w T ith buff, so as almost entirely to conceal 

 the deeper tints of the plumage, and, in many examples, 

 even at the breediug-season, these borders not being entirely 

 shed, especially from the top of the head, give the bird a 

 very different appearance, but the characteristic colouring 

 may always be discovered by examining the middle part 

 of the feathers. 



The adult female in summer has the bill yellow : the top 



