SYLVIAD.E. 



In the adult bird, the beak and iridcs are black : upper 

 part of the head, neck, back, upper tail-coverts and tail- 

 feathers, a yellowish olive brown; quill- feathers rather darker, 

 the outer edges olive brown ; greater wing-coverts tipped 

 with buff: over the base of the beak, round the eye, the 

 chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, reddish orange ; 

 encircling this red is a narrow band of bluish grey, which 

 is broadest near the shoulders : lower part of the breast 

 and belly white; sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts, pale 

 brown ; under surface of wing and tail-feathers dusky grey ; 

 legs, toes, and claws, purple brown. 



The whole length of the bird is five inches and three- 

 quarters. The length of the wing from the carpal joint to 

 the end of the longest quill-feather, three inches : the first 

 wing-feather but half the length of the second, which is not 

 quite so long as the sixth ; the third, fourth, and fifth nearly 

 equal, and the longest in the wing. 



The female is not quite so large as the male, and her 

 colours are less bright. 



The young birds before their first moult have the brown 

 feathers of the head, back, and wing-coverts tipped with buff 

 or very pale brown ; throat and breast tinged with reddish 

 brown, and margined with dark brown. 



The young birds after their first autumn moult resemble 

 adult females ; but the red of the breast is tinged with 

 orange, the legs dark brown. 



The Redbreast is subject to variation in the colouring of 

 the plumage. White and partly white varieties are not un- 

 common. I remember, some years ago, having seen one 

 in which the part usually coloured red was a light bluish 

 grey, the back and wings bluish green. In this state, as to 

 colour, the bird had the appearance of a Tit (Pariis) ; but 

 the generic characters, and the particular distribution of the 

 colours, decided the species. 



