260 SYLVIAD.E. 



featlier being grey at the base, but brown at the tip, the 

 brown thus hiding the grey : the wing-coverts, secondaries, 

 and tertials, broadly edged with reddish brown ; the tail-fea- 

 thers tipped with bufF; the reddish buff colour of the chin 

 and throat, and the paler buff colour of the belly, vent, and 

 under tail-coverts, are much more intense in colour and rich- 

 ness. This change, as before remarked, is produced by the 

 regular autumnal moult, and the brown colour remains all 

 the winter ; but in the following spring the change from the 

 brown to the grey appearance is effected by the wearing off 

 of the brown tips and margins of all the feathers that were 

 previously so coloured ; — an illustration of one of the modes 

 by which changes of appearance are effected, as referred to at 

 the bottom of page 159. These brown edges disappear from 

 the quill -feathers of the wings before the brown colour is lost 

 on the feathers of the head, neck, back, and scapulars. On 

 these last-named parts the change from brown to grey is gra- 

 dual, and many shades of difference may be observed in 

 different specimens, some changing more rapidly than others ; 

 but the change from grey to brown produced by the autumn 

 moult is rapid and general, affecting all alike. 



Females and young birds in autumn do not differ much 

 from adult males at the same season, except that the mark- 

 ings about the head are less clearly defined, and the colours 

 are rather less pure. The birds are in this state of plumage 

 when caught in such numbers on the south downs. 



The vignette represents the breastbones of the Robin and 

 the Wheatear. 



