THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 351 



longitudinal stripes. This plumage is very rarely obtained in a 

 quite pure condition, fewer or more feathers of the following 

 plumage, according to the time at which the particular individual 

 arrives, being mixed with it. The feathers of the upper parts are 

 dark olivaceous brown, blackish in the middle ; both colours are, 

 however, no longer sharply marked off, but run into each other, the 

 rump particularly appearing merely clouded. 



The old bird in fresh adult plumage may perhaps be called the 

 handsomest of all the Pipits occurring in Europe. The whole of 

 the plumage is overspread by a pleasing, in part very rich, rust 

 colour, only the two outer tail-feathers displaying any pure white. 

 The feathers of all the upper parts are brownish black in the 

 middle, and have beautiful broad rust-coloured lateral borders, 

 their tips being of a lighter colour ; on the head and neck, these 

 colours form five dark stripes, separated by rust colour. On the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts the rust colour is somewhat duller, 

 and almost completely hides the dark central parts of the feathers. 

 The greater and middle wing-coverts, and the three very long 

 posterior flight-feathers, have very broad borders of a rich rust 

 colour. All the lower parts are light rust colour, this colour being 

 very intense on the sides of the upper breast and breast, and 

 particularly on the flanks. From the lower mandible a black stripe 

 runs downwards along both sides of the neck, which, becoming 

 very broad below, borders the whole of the upper breast in the 

 form of stripe-markings. 



The flight-feathers are brownish black, and the tail-feathers 

 almost black the outermost pair of the latter being pure white, 

 with a narrow dark cuneiform spot at the base of the inner web ; 

 the second pair is dark along the inner edge of the inner web, and 

 has a very narrow, almost black, stripe on the shaft. The pure 

 white of these two pairs of feathers forms the sole white marking 

 in the whole plumage of the bird. 



The bill is of pale horn colour, the tip being dark, and the legs 

 and feet are of pale yellowish flesh colour. The rust colour of the 

 plumage, as described above, is intermediate between rust yellow 

 and rust red. I have only obtained two birds in which this colour 

 had to be called faint rust red, or ferruginous, these being probably 

 very old examples. The female of this species is distinguished 

 from the male by the rust colour being rather less beautiful, and 

 having a slight touch of olivaceous brown the spots, also, which 

 form a border or gorget round the upper breast, are more rounded 

 in form there is no difference between the sexes in size of body 

 and the length of the spur. It should be further noted that the 

 sides of the breast and the flanks in old birds are invariably with- 



