68 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



the former shows a quite reddis/i-brown cloak ; that 

 of the latter is of brown alone of a far more sober 

 cast. The female ' Girl," however, lacking the 

 dusky chin-spot, is besides a much dowdier person 

 (though she has got a touch of reddish -brown on 

 the back) not only and naturally than her hus- 

 band, but also even than the hen Yellowhammer. 

 She may, however, be separated from that species 

 in a moment by the olive-green tint of her rump 

 (a distinction also shared by the cock " Girl," 

 though not, as has been confidently asserted, by 

 nestlings in their first full plumage), as against the 

 bright chestnut upper tail-coverts of both sexes 

 of the more familiar bird. The rump is admirably 

 displayed as either bird flusters off its nest. There 

 are, of course, other and minor differences, as for 

 instance the fact that the small feathers on the 

 shoulder -joints of the female " Girl " are greenish- 

 grey, as contrasted with the brown lesser wing- 

 coverts of the hen Yellowhammer ; and yet the 

 leading indications prescribed above are all sufficient 

 for the /teZd-naturalist. The flight of the " Girl," 

 too, is more dipping and volatile than the Yellow 

 Bunting's. 



Glancing at the young for a moment, these are, 

 when newly hatched and for a few days subse- 

 quently, pink-skinned with a tuft of sooty down on 

 the head, and with similar plumes of greyish-white 

 (still inclined to sootiness) on the feather-tracts of 

 the body ; the cere is yellow, the interior of the 



