336 BRITISH BIRDS. 
toes, and claws dark brown. The female in general coloration resembles 
the male, except that the rich orange-chestnut throat is replaced by buff, 
and the bluish grey is wanting on the head and sides of the neck. 
Males of the year scarcely differ from the female, and breed in the 
following spring in immature plumage (J. minuta). In the second year 
the chestnut appears on the throat (M. leucura) ; in the third year the 
chestnut appears on the upper breast (M7. parva) ; and in the fourth year it 
extends also onto the lower breast, in which plumage they are the M. 
hyperythra of Cabanis apud Brooks. Young in first plumage are spotted 
on the breast and upper parts, as in all the allied species ; but this plumage 
is of course moulted before the birds migrate. 
It is needless to say that this bird, like all the rest of its genus, has twelve 
tail-feathers, though Newton, in his edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 
represents it as only having fen. This is doubtless a misprint; for every 
ornithologist will admit that Professor Newton compensates his readers for 
the slowness of his work by its accuracy. 
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