RING OUZEL. 223 



brown ; the head, neck, back, upper tail-coverts, wings, 

 and tail-feathers, nearly uniform brownish black ; the fea- 

 thers of the body edged with blackish grey ; the external 

 margins of all the wing-feathers grey, but this lighter colour 

 is broadest on the edges of the tertials ; the chin, throat, 

 breast, belly, and under tail-coverts are of the same colour 

 as the upper surface of the body, but across the chest there 

 is a broad crescentic stripe of pure white : the legs, toes, 

 and claws, brownish black. 



The length of an adult bird is about eleven inches. The 

 wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the longest pri- 

 mary, five inches and a half: the first feather of the wing 

 very short ; the second equal in length to the fifth ; the 

 third and fourth feathers also equal, and the longest in the 

 wing. 



The female is rather lighter in colour than the adult 

 male, and the grey margins of the feathers are broader ; 

 the band across the chest is narrower; the white colour 

 is less pure, and clouded with reddish brown and grey. 



Young males resemble the adult female ; but in young 

 females the pectoral gorget is scarcely perceptible. 



Specimens without the white crescent have been called 

 Jlock- thrushes. White, and some otherwise marked vari- 

 eties, are said to have occurred. 



The vignette represents the form of the breast-bone of 

 the Common Dipper. 



