290 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



white with black bases to black with white tips ; median, when 

 renewed, black occasionally with white tips ; lesser coverts, when 

 renewed, black. 



Adult female. Winter. Like adult winter male but fore-head 

 brown or creamy, never with white ; rump brown, never black ; 

 upper tail-coverts usually brown, but sometimes black with brown 

 tips ; tail dark brown, never so black as in some males. Moult 

 apparently as male. Summer. Moult apparently as male. As 

 winter, but inner secondaries with more white and under -parts 

 rather more whitish. 



Nestling. Down dark grey, scanty. Distribution inner supra- 

 orbital, occipital, humeral and spinal. Mouth inside orange-yellow, 

 no tongue spots, externally flanges pale yellow. (C. B. Ticehurst, 

 Brit. B., HI, p. 152.) 



Juvenile. Upper-parts dark brown with a pale buff spot at 

 tip of each feather ; upper tail-coverts black-brown ; under -parts 

 huffish-white, each feather slightly tipped dusky-black, giving a 

 spotted appearance ; tail, primaries, secondaries and greater 

 coverts as adult winter ; median coverts brown with small buffish- 

 white tips ; lesser coverts brown with pale buff spots at tip. 



First winter. Male. Very similar to adult winter male but 

 usually distinguishable by whitish tips to some median coverts and 

 often by one or two juvenile feathers with spots at tip, pale margins 

 of inner secondaries usually broader, especially at apex, than in 

 adult winter. Feathers of fore-head brown or dark cream-colour, 

 apparently never with white. N.B. Some first winter males 

 have tail-feathers and rump black and wing-feathers very dark, 

 and in these respects vary as adult males. The juvenile body- 

 feathers and lesser wing -co verts are moulted in July -Aug., but not 

 rest of wing -co verts nor wing-feathers or tail. First summer. - 

 Moult apparently as in adults. Upper-parts mixture of black or 

 greyish-black and brown, and usually with less white on fore-head 

 and sometimes less pure white on breast than adult male ; wing- 

 feathers more worn and browner than adult. Occasionally examples 

 though moulted are much as in winter, having scarcely any black 

 or blackish feathers on upper -parts and many dusky-buff feathers 

 on throat and breast. 



First winter. Female. Moult as in male. Plumage as adult 

 winter female, but usually distinguishable (as in male) by somewhat 

 broader margins to inner secondaries and whitish tips to median 

 wing-coverts. First summer. Moult as in male. Apparently 

 indistinguishable from adult female. 



Measurements and structure. wing 76-82 mm., tail 49-54, 

 tarsus 16.5-18, biU from skull 10-11 (12 measured). $ wing 75-80. 

 Primaries : 1st 2^i mm. longer than longest primary-covert, 3rd 

 and 4th longest, 2nd 4-7 shorter, 5th 2-5 shorter (5th usually longer 

 and never shorter than 2nd, but occasionally equal), 6th 8-10 



