360 BRITISH BIRDS. 
principally in birds shot in the pale breeding-plumage, but are sometimes _ 
sparingly found in the fulvous plumage after the autumn moult. Some 
ornithologists ascribe the striated underparts to the adult plumage, and 
the unstriated to birds of the year; but I have come to the conclusion, 
after examining a large series of these birds, that the striated plumage is 
that of summer and the unstriated that of winter, though this appears to 
be a somewhat exceptional change. Bill dark brown above, pale below; 
legs, feet, and claws pale horn-colour ; irides hazel. This bird may be at 
once distinguished from its near ally the Sedge-Warbler by the difference 
in the stripes on the head. In that. bird every feather on the head has a 
dark centre, forming, when the feathers are not ruffed, four or five distinct 
but narrow dark stripes on the crown between the two pale eye-stripes. 
In the Aquatic Warbler there are only two dark stripes on the crown, very 
broad, distinct, and conspicuous. 
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