BRITISH BIRDS. 
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times she attains by age some of his blue and chestnut markings. After 
the autumn moult the bright plumage is partially hidden by broad margins 
to the feathers, which, however, are cast in the spring. Males of the year 
resewble females; and young in nestling plumage have all the small 
feathers nearly black with buftish centres, palest and most prominent 
on the belly. 
The European Bluethroat (Zrithacus cyaneculus) is the Southern and 
Western representative of the Arctic Bluethroat. It has been included 
in the British list, but on far too slender evidence; and although I have 
figured the egg of this bird, for the sake of comparison, its claims as a 
British species must remain in abeyance until more satisfactory evidence 
is forthcoming. A bird alleged to be of this species was seen in the Isle 
of Wight (Zoologist, 1866, p. 172); but the evidence is unsatisfactory 
and meagre. Another specimen is said to have been picked up dead 
under the telegraph-wires at Seamer, near Scarborough (Zoologist, 1876, 
p. 4956); as, however, this specimen was a female, and as the adult 
females of the two species are very often the same in plumage, and 
immature females are apparently always undistinguishable, it is impossible 
to recognise the bird as an undoubted European Bluethroat. The third and 
last recorded instance of the bird’s capture in Great Britain was announced 
by my friend Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1881, p. 451. 
This specimen was obtained from the Isle of May on the 24th of September 
of that year. I have seen this example; it is a bird of the year, and there 
is not a shadow of evidence to indicate to which species it belongs. 
The European Bluethroat breeds in Central and Western Europe, 
but becomes rarer during the breeding-season as we trace it eastwards. 
It is said to pass through Turkestan and Northern Cashmere on migration, 
and to have been occasionally obtained in India and Persia; but I have 
never seen an Asiatic skin, and doubt its occurrence in Asia. Great 
doubt attaches to the specimens of this bird obtained so far to the east- 
wards as Persia and India; and it is possible that immature birds of the 
Arctic species have been mistaken for them. The greater number of these 
birds pass through South Europe on migration, and winter in Palestine 
and North Africa. : 
In its habits and mode of nesting, and in its song and call-notes, the 
European Bluethroat resembles its Arctic ally. Like that bird it is a lover 
of swampy places, fond of concealment, and creeps in a silent mouse-like 
manner through the bushes and undergrowth ; and its food, so far as I can 
determine, is also similar. Its nest is placed similarly to that of the pre- 
on the ground under the shelter of a tussock, or at the foot 
of a small bush; and the materials which compose it are much the same. 
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The eggs of this bird present much the same types, and possess similar 
variations to those of its northern congener. 
ceding species 
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