306 SYLVIAD.E. 



In the adult male tlie beak is brown ; under mandible 

 pale yellow brown at the base ; irides hazel ; a narrow light- 

 coloured streak over the eye ; crown of the head, neck, back, 

 and upper tail-coverts, dull olive-green ; wing and tail-fea- 

 thers darker brown, the former edged with green ; the ter- 

 tials to a greater extent than the primaries : the tail slightly 

 notched, the tAvo middle feathers being a trifle shorter than 

 the others ; chin, throat, and breast, whitish, but strongly 

 tinged with yellow ; belly almost white ; flanks, and under 

 tail-coverts, like the feathers on the front of the neck, tinged 

 with yellow ; under wing-coverts bright yellow, some of 

 which extend over the outer edge of the wing, from the carpal 

 joint to the bastard or spurious wing-feathers; under surface 

 of wing and tail-feathers greyish brown; legs, toes, and claws, 

 pale brown. 



The whole length of the bird about five inches ; from the 

 carpal joint to the end of the longest primary, two inches and 

 a half; the first quill-feather short; the second equal in 

 length to the sixth, but not so long as the fifth ; the third, 

 fourth, and fifth feathers, nearly equal in length, and the 

 longest in the wing. 



The females scarcely difi^er from the males either in size 

 or plumage ; and these birds moult as soon as the breeding 

 season is over. 



Young birds in their nestling feathers resemble the parent 

 birds in the colour of their plumage ; but in the autumn after 

 their first moult the whole of the under surface of the body 

 is more decidedly yellow than the same parts in the parent 

 birds at the same season, and this yellow colour is retained to 

 some extent till after their re-appearance here in the following 

 spring, so that it is not difficult to select the birds of the 

 previous year from those which arc older. 



