And then, too, there are difficulties due to seasonal changes 
of plumage—often striking—sex, and age; since immature 
birds often differ totally from the adults in appearance. The 
young robin and the starling afford instances in point. 
The adult starling, as everybody knows, is “ black” with a 
yellow beak and reddish legs. But seen close at hand his feathers 
gleam with a wonderful metallic sheen reflecting changing hues of 
violet, green, and purple. The young bird, in the early summer, 
is of a pale brown colour. In the autumn the plumage is changed 
for a “ black dress,” like that of the adult, but heavily spotted 
with white. As the winter wears on the white spots become 
abraded, and disappear. The robin needs no description. But 
the young bird, in its first plumage, is commonly mistaken for 
the female, which, of course, is practically indistinguishable 
from the male. It is certainly unlike one’s notion of a ‘ cock- 
robin,” being of a yellowish brown colour, with pale spots, a type 
of plumage characteristic of the young of the “ thrush tribe.” 
In some nearly related species, again, the males are strikingly 
different, the females barely distinguishable. 7 
But nevertheless, a very considerable number of our British 
birds can be more or less easily distinguished during flight— 
sometimes by the manner of that flight, sometimes by character- 
istic markings, sometimes by the notes they utter; and these are 
briefly summarised in this Chapter. 
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