282 BRITISH BIRDS. lvol. x 



From February to May a complete moult takes place. The 

 sexes and the winter and summer plumages are alike. 



Juvenile. — Appears to be like the adult but with pale 

 buff spots at the tips of the feathers of the upper-parts, the 

 feathers of the under-parts with dusky tips and the wing- 

 coverts and inner secondaries with pale buff tips, but the 

 correct identification of the few juvenile specimens available 

 for examination seems to me micertain. 



First Winter. — The juvenile body -feathers, lesser and 

 median wing-coverts are moulted in August and September 

 but apparently not the rest of the wings nor the tail. First 

 winter birds may be distinguished from adults by the broader 

 and more clearly defined pale buff or whitish edgings and tips 

 to the greater coverts and in fresh plumage by similar margins 

 to the inner secondaries. 



First Summer.— The body-feathers are again moulted 

 from February to May, but apparently not the wings, greater 

 wing-coverts and tail. Although becoming much worn in 

 summer some of the pale tips to the greater coverts are 

 usually distinguishable. 



Pied Flycatcher {Muscicapa h. hyjioleuca). 



Adults. — Complete moult in Julj^ and August. Early in 

 the year (apparently January to March) most of the body- 

 feathers, three (occasionally four) innermost secondaries, 

 the inner greater wing-coverts (outer very seldom) and some- 

 times some median and lesser wing-coverts are moulted, but 

 not the rest of the wings nor the tail The sexes are very 

 much alike in winter plumage, the upper-parts being dark 

 brown, but while the male has usually white or creamy bases 

 to the feathers of the forehead the female has either brown 

 or creamy bases and never white, the rump of the female is 

 brown, but that of the male often (but not always) is a mixture 

 of black and brown, the upper tail-coverts of the male are 

 black with some of the shorter feathers with brown tips 

 while those of the female are visually brown but sometimes 

 black with brown tips, in the female also the tail-feathers are 

 dark brown and never so black or blackish as in the male. 

 In summer the plumage of the female scarcely differs from 

 tha;t of winter, but there is a little more white on the second- 

 aries—the under-parts are lather whiter. The male, how- 

 ever, differs strikingly having a white forehead and glossy 

 black upper-parts, though a varying number of brown winter 

 feathers remain unmoulted especially on the back and rump, 

 the under-parts become j^ure white, and the new secondaries 



