270 MOTACILLID^E. 



(') Forehead white. 



(c") Crown grey like the back Fotmg : 1st winter plumage. 

 (d") Crown black, contrasting with the grey back 



Adult : winter plumage. 

 (I)) Throat and foreneck black. 



(c f ) Head and nape black Adult & breeding plumage. 

 (d') Nape mixed with ashy Adult 9 breeding plumage. 



" Young in ist plumage. Above uniform ashy grey, washed with olive; the 

 lesser wing coverts the same ; median and greater series dusky ashy, washed 

 with brown externally, and with white at the ends ; bastard wing, primary 

 coverts and quills blackish edged with ashy externally, the secondaries with 

 white, subterminally shaded with brown ; tail black, the two centre feathers 

 edged with white, the two outer ones white with blackish edgings to the inner 

 web ; the base of the penultimate feather also black ; forehead and crown 

 like the back ; lores ashy ; above the ear coverts a streak of yellowish white; 

 ear coverts pale yellowish white ; cheeks and throat dingy white with a slight 

 yellowish tinge ; foreneck, chest and sides of the body ashy grey with a patch 

 of blackish on the foreneck ; remainder of under parts white ; thighs dull ashy 

 with dusky bases ; axillaries and under wing coverts white. 



"From this plumage a complete moult brings the bird into its full winter 

 plumage ; the upper surface uniform grey, and there is generally a strong 

 suffusion of yellow on the face, but Sharpe says this is not always the 

 case, and may be peculiar to one sex or to the birds of the second brood. 

 In the following spring the full plumage is reached not by a moult but 

 by a change of feather, the black on the head generally appearing first and 

 afterwards that on the throat. In the case of the female birds, at least in 

 their first spring, the head never seems to become entirely black, the nape 

 still retaining some ashy plumes. The young male in first winter plumage 

 is light ashy grey above, washed with yellowish olive on the head and 

 back ; the rump being purer grey, and becoming dusky towards the upper 

 tail coverts which are black, washed externally with ashy, the lateral coverts 

 white on their outer webs ; lesser wing coverts ashy grey like the back, and 

 similarly washed with olive ; median and greater wing coverts blackish, 

 externally washed with brownish ashy; whiter towards the ends of the feathers j 

 bastard wing, primary coverts and quills blackish, externally edged with dull 

 ashy, the inner secondaries browner on the outer web which is fringed with 

 dull white ; tail as in the adult, but with black extending along the outer web 

 of the penultimate feather ; head light ashy grey, washed with yellowish olive ; 

 a frontal band of white obscured with yellowish olive ; lores ashy ; a streak of 

 whitish yellow above the ear coverts, surmounted by a line of blackish along 

 the sides of the crown ; ear coverts pale yellowish, also the sides of the neck ; 

 throat yellowish white, followed by a crescentic band of black on the foreneck 



