REDWING. 271 



Its range in Scandinavia has already been mentioned, and 

 thence it extends across the Russian Empire, especially fre- 

 quenting places where the juniper grows, to Irkutsk, east- 

 ward of which it has not been recorded. It has been found 

 in the North-western Himalayas, and in Koliat it is said to 

 be a regular winter-visitant. Menetries noticed it in the 

 forests of Lenkoran on the Caspian Sea, and Strickland at 

 Smyrna. It is said to be common in Greece and its islands, 

 but seems not to cross the eastern end of the Mediterranean. 

 In Sicily it is somewhat rare, but it occasionally appears 

 in Malta, and, according to Loche, it is common in autumn 

 in Algeria. It has also been met with in Madeira, while 

 in Portugal and Spain it is common at certain seasons, as in- 

 deed may be said of it in every country in Europe. In North 

 Germany it is very abundant in autumn, and the numbers 

 captured far exceed those of the Song-Thrush, and there it 

 is occasionally but rarely found throughout the year. 



The bill is brownish-black, the base of the lower mandible 

 pale yellow-brown ; the top of the head, neck, back, rump 

 and tail uniform clove-brown ; wing- feathers darker, but with 

 lighter-coloured external edges : lores and ear-coverts, clove- 

 brown ; over the eye a broad whitish streak : the irides hazel : 

 chin, throat, belly, vent and lower tail-coverts, dull white ; 

 sides of the neck, upper part of the breast, and flanks, dull- 

 white, tinged with wood-brown and streaked with clove-brown ; 

 quills ash-grey beneath ; sides of the body, lower wing-coverts 

 and axillaries, bright reddish-orange, whence the bird's com- 

 mon name : legs pale brown ; toes and claws darker brown. 



The whole length is about eight inches and three-quarters; 

 wing from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary 

 four inches and three-eighths : the second feather equal to 

 the fifth ; the third and fourth also equal, and the longest. 



The female is less bright than the male. The young in 

 its first plumage generally resembles the adult, but the 

 feathers of the mantle and upper wing-coverts are marked 

 with a subtermiual lozenge-shaped spot of yellowish-white 

 tinned with rufous on the latter. 



