270 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Adult Male. Back and scapulars chestnut-brown, with slightly 

 indicated greyish margins to the feathers ; the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts ashy-grey, darker on the latter ; 

 lesser wing-coverts like the back ; the median and greater- 

 coverts dusky brown, washed with ashy and slightly tinged 

 with rufous, the greater coverts and the bastard-wing with 

 whitish margins ; primary-coverts and quills dark brown, edged 

 with ashy-grey, a little browner on the secondaries ; tail- 

 feathers blackish, edged with ashy, ribbed under certain 

 lights with dusky cross-bars, and the outer feathers fringed 

 with white at the end of the inner webs ; crown of head and 

 hind-neck ashy-grey, extending on to the mantle ; the crown 

 slightly streaked with blackish centres to the feathers ; the base 

 of the forehead hoary-whitish, extending above the eye ; lores 

 dusky black ; eyelid whitish ; sides of face and ear-coverts ashy- 

 grey, streaked with whitish ; cheeks ochreous-buff, streaked 

 with black, the stripes widening posteriorly, especially towards, 

 the sides of the neck ; cheeks, throat, and breast ochreous- 

 buff, the cheeks scantily streaked with black, the throat uni- 

 form, the lower throat and chest distinctly streaked, and the 

 chest mottled with blackish centres to the feathers, which are 

 continued down the sides of the body and tinged with chest- 

 nut ; centre of breast and abdomen white, as well as the under 

 tail-coverts, which have blackish margins ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries white ; quills dusky below, ashy along the inner 

 webs; bill yellow; feet black; iris reddish-brown. Total length, 

 10 inches; culmen, 0*8; wing, 5-5; tail, 4-0; tarsus, 1-3. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but not so richly coloured, 

 the markings on the sides of the breast and throat much less 

 defined. Total length, 10 inches; wing, 5 - 6. 



Young. Dusky brown above, the mantle darker, the upper 

 surface streaked with whitish along the shafts of the feathers, 

 which are further mottled with black tips ; throat and fore-neck 

 orange-buff, largely spotted with black tips to the feathers, the 

 spots smaller and less pronounced on the breast and sides of 

 the body. 



Range in Great Britain. A regular winter visitor, arriving in 

 large flocks and gradually dispersing over the country, so that 

 its arrival in the western districts is later than the time when it 



