BRAMBLING. 99 
colour is generally washed here and there with patches of reddish brown, 
which look like underlying spots that have run. The overlying spots vary 
from the size of No. 10 shot down to a point, and in colour from pale 
reddish brown to very dark brown: sometimes they are absent altogether. 
The male Brambling in full breeding-plumage has the general colour of 
the upper parts, including the sides of the neck, the ear-coverts, and the 
cheeks, black glossed with blue on the head and dullest on the quills; 
lesser wing-coverts chestnut-buff; median wing-coverts white; greater 
wing-coverts tipped with white. The centre of the rump is white, and a 
spot of white is formed on the wing by the fourth and succeeding primaries, 
which have the outside web white at the base. A narrow white margin is 
also generally left on most of the quills and tail-feathers. The chin, throat, 
and. breast are chestnut-buff, and the rest of the underparts are white with 
black spots on the flanks. Bill bluish black ; legs, feet, and claws reddish 
brown ; irides hazel. 
The Brambling is an excellent example of a bird which only moults in 
autumn, but completely changes his appearance in spring by casting the 
ends of the feathers. To such an extent is this the case that it would 
almost be possible by carefully cutting off with a pair of scissors the chest- 
nut-buff margins of the feathers, which nearly conceal the black of the 
upper parts, to change a bird in autumn plumage to that of spring. This 
process would not, however, quite complete the change. In autumn the 
bill becomes bright yellow tipped with horn-colour; the tips of the 
greater wing-coverts and the margins of the innermost secondaries are 
broad and chestnut-buff; the margins of the quills and tail-feathers are 
also broader and greenish yellow, so that there must also be a change in 
the colour of the feather. 
The young male in first winter plumage differs very slightly from the 
adult, but the pale margins of the upper tail-coverts and the two central 
rectrices extend almost over the whole feather as in the female. The 
female very much resembles the male in autumn plumage, except that 
all the colours are duller, the black is replaced by brown, and the 
chestnut-buff and white on the wing-coverts are reduced to an obscure 
margin. Females in first winter plumage are very chestnut, and adults in 
summer plumage are very grey, otherwise in this sex the changes produced 
by age and season are very slight. 
Varieties of the Brambling occasionally occur with more or less black 
on the chin and throat. 
H 2 
