>96 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



the body dusky. Sides of body and flanks reddish chestnut, mixed here and 

 there with a very little dusky. Wing lining and axillaries white. Legs and 

 feet olive green on the inside, blackish on the outside. Length about thirteen 

 inches ; wing 5-5 inches. 



The female has the ornaments of the head rather less developed, and is 

 usually said to be rather smaller. 



The full plumage is probably not attained in the first summer. A female 

 killed in Manitoba in the beginning of July, probably not a breeding bird 

 had the throat, sides of the face and head, dusky-brown, varied with soiled 

 white, and very little elongation of the feathers. The superciliary line only 

 slightly developed and pale in colour ; the feathers at the side? of the crown 

 not raised ; the chestnut of the neck less rich than in the adult. Lower 

 breast and upper belly obscurely mottled with dusky ; sides of the body and 

 flanks more mixed with dusky. 



In winter, the forehead, top and sides of the head (but hardly extending 

 below the eye), nape, back of the neck and upper parts generally, of a vatying 

 shade of blackish grey or dusky, with a slight brown cast. Primaries dusky 

 grey. The sides of the lower throat and upper neck dusky, extending across the 

 front of the neck, but much paler on that part. Between the base of the bill 

 and eye a whitish spot ; below this a bare patch of pink skin. Sides of the 

 body and flanks marked with dusky lines. Lowest part of the body somewhat 

 dusky. Chin, throat, and rest of the under parts white, silvery or shining on 

 the breast and belly. The white on the throat extends up the sides, and nearly 

 meets on the nape. Bill dark horn colour, tip and base paler and pinkish, bare 

 space between the bill and eye, the angle of the mouth and edges of the eyelids 

 pink. Inside of tarsus and upper surface of toes grey, outside and membranes 

 blackish. 



Young birds in their first autumn and winter are very similar, rather more 

 ash-coloured, and the white on the head less pure ; but Dr. Coues states that 

 the newly-fledged young are curiously striped on the head with rufous, dusky 

 and white. The iris is sometimes golden yellow. 



The young in down have the head, neck, throat, breast, and belly, white, 

 marked on the head with black, and on the neck with seven black lines, the two 

 on the forepart of the neck not continuous on the upper part, and divergent on 

 the lower part. At the base of the bill and in front of the eye a bare patch of 

 reddish skin. Another on the crown, surrounded by a triangular black patch, 

 the sides of the base of which are prolonged, partly enclosing a white patch, and 

 are continued as neck lines. Another pair of lines start from the base of the 



