WHEATEAR. 283 



The whole length of the adult bird is six inches and a 

 half. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill- 

 feather, three inches and seven- eighths : the first feather 

 very short ; the second as long as the fifth ; the third and 

 fourth equal in length, and the longest in the wing. 



In the adult female, during the breeding season, the 

 ear-coverts are dark brown ; the grey of the back and the 

 buff of the under surface of the body are each clouded with 

 brown. 



Immediately after the breeding season the annual moult- 

 ing takes place, and the plumage of old and young is then 

 very similar : the beak and the colours of the cheeks are 

 much the same as before, but the top of the head, back, 

 and scapulars are reddish brown, slightly tinged with grey; 

 each feather being grey at the base, but brown at the tip, 

 the brown thus hiding the grey : the wing-coverts, secon- 

 daries, and tertials, broadly edged with reddish brown ; 

 the tail-feathers tipped with buff; the reddish buff-colour 

 of the chin and throat, and the paler buff colour of the 

 belly, vent, and under tail- coverts, are much more intense 

 in colour and richness. This change, as before remarked, 

 is produced by the regular autumnal moult, and the brown 

 colour remains all the winter ; but in the following spring 

 the change from the brown to the grey appearance is 

 effected by the wearing off of the brown tips and margins 

 of all the feathers that were previously so coloured ; an 

 illustration of one of the modes by which changes of ap- 

 pearance are effected, as referred to at the bottom of page 

 166. These brown edges disappear from the quill-feathers 

 of the wings before the brown colour is lost on the feathers 

 of the head, neck, back, and scapulars. On these last- 

 named parts *the change from brown to grey is gradual, 

 and many shades of difference may be observed in different 



