12 EMBERIZID.E. 



hatched, are clothed with dark sooty down, and are fed, as 

 would appear from Herr Collett's observation, chiefly on the 

 larvfe of Tqndidce. Their plumage when they have left the 

 nest will he presently described, and they accompany their 

 parents for some time, perhaps until the advancing season 

 gives all warning to depart for other lands. Then the dif- 

 ferent family-parties unite in bands whose numbers are daily 

 swollen by fresh adherents until they form a mighty host 

 that with the first frosts of winter takes wing over the 

 southern seas. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage*, of which a good 

 representation is given by Bewick, has the bill black : the 

 irides hazel : the head, neck and all the lower parts pure 

 white, though in some examples the top of the head and the 

 nape are mottled with black, and there is generally a black 

 spot visible above and behind the ears. The upper wing- 

 coverts, except those of the bastard-wing which are black, 

 and the secondaries white ; but the latter are often black 

 towards the extremity, though their tip seems to be always 

 white ; and in some examples the middle wing-coverts are 

 also black, bordered with greyish-white, forming a distinct 

 black bar across the wing ; the primaries and tertials are 

 black, the former however white at the base, and the latter 

 often bordered outwardly with white ; the back is jet-black, 

 mottled more or less on the rump with white ; the three 

 inner pairs of tail-quills black, occasionally slightly bordered 

 or tipped with white, but the three outer pairs are nearly 

 white, with a black patch towards the tip : the legs, toes and 

 claws black.f 



The adult female, at the same time, much resembles her 



* In this state English specimens are very rare : one was killed in the grounds 

 of Mr. 'Wortham, at Royston, May 22nd, 1840, and given by him to the Author 

 of this work ; a second, " pretty far advanced," was shot near Penzance in April, 

 1864, as recorded by Mr. Rodd (Zool. p. 9109); a third, in "full summer 

 plumage," was obtained, according to Mr. Button (Zool. s.s. p. 792), April 14th, 

 1867, at Eastbourne, and a fourth, in "full breeding plumage," at the same 

 place early in July, 1872, as mentioned by Capt. Kennedy (Zool. s.s. p. 3914). 



+ The birds which in breeding-plumage exhibit the black mottling of the 

 head and the black bar on the wings are most likely those in which the white 

 tip of the feathers is worn off more than in the others. 



