190 MUSCICAPID^E. 



An adult female killed in summer, for which I am in- 

 debted to the kindness of John Walton, Esq., of Byard's 

 Lodge, near Knaresborough, who obtained it in the Valley 

 of Desolation, near Bolton Abbey, has the beak black, 

 without any white over its base ; the head, neck, back, 

 and wing-coverts, dark hair brown ; wing-primaries brown- 

 ish black; greater coverts and tertials edged with dull 

 white ; tail-feathers marked like those of the adult male, 

 but less bright in colour : under parts dull white ; legs, 

 toes, and claws, black. 



A young male of the year, killed near London in Sep- 

 tember, and at that time changing his plumage, having 

 obtained in part the darker coloured feathers by which the 

 male bird is distinguished, has the beak black, no white mark 

 over its base ; the head, neck, back, and wing-coverts, dark 

 hair brown, as in the female, the latter edged with yellow- 

 ish white ; primaries, secondaries, and tertials, black ; the 

 latter margined with white, but these edges are not so 

 broad as in the adult male : the markings of the tail- 

 feathers precisely those of the old male, and black and white ; 

 chin and under tail-coverts white ; breast, belly, and flanks, 

 dull white, tinged with pale brown. 



A male killed in the spring, immediately on the arrival 

 of the species in this country, has the beak black, with a 

 conspicuous white mark above its base ; head, including 

 the eyes, neck, back, and greater wing-coverts, a mixture 

 of dusky and pure black; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 smoke-grey ; primaries dusky black ; smaller wing-coverts 

 smoke-grey ; greater wing-coverts and tertials broadly edged 

 with white ; tail-feathers nearly black, the outer ones edged 

 with white, as in the adult male first described : all the 

 under parts pure white. This bird I believe to be in 

 change to his first breeding plumage, and was obtained in 

 Tunstall Valley, near Wearmouth, Durham. 



