180 MUSCICAPID^E. 



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 then 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. 



