172 MUSCICAPID.E. 



cd like those of the adult male, but less bright in colour : 

 under parts dull white ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 



A young male of the year, killed near London in Septem- 

 ber, and then changing his plumage, having obtained in part 

 the darker coloured feathers by which the male bird is dis- 

 tinguished, has the beak black, no white mark over its base ; 

 the head, neck, back, and wing- coverts, dark hair brown, as 

 in the female, the latter edged with yellowish white ; prima- 

 ries, secondaries, and tertials, black ; the latter margined 

 with white, but these edges are not so broad as in the adult 

 male : the markings of the tail-feathers precisely those of 

 the old male, and black and white ; chin and under tail- 

 coverts white ; breast, belly, and flanks, dull white, tinged 

 with pale brown. 



A male killed in the spring, immediately on the arrival of 

 the species in this country, has the beak black, with a con- 

 spicuous white mark above its base ; head, including the 

 eyes, neck, back, and greater wing-coverts, a mixture of 

 dusky and pure black ; rump and upper tail-coverts smoke- 

 grey ; primaries dusky black ; smaller wing-coverts smoke- 

 grey ; greater wing-coverts and tertials broadly edged with 

 white ; tail-feathers nearly black, the outer ones edged with 

 white, as in the adult male first described : all the under parts 

 pure white. This bird I believe to be in change to his 

 first breeding plumage, and was obtained in Tunstall Valley, 

 near Wcarmouth, Durham. 



The young male killed in September is represented in 

 the lower figure of the illustration at the head of this article ; 

 the male killed in spring is the subject of the upper figure. 



