328 SYLVIJD.fl. 



two middle tail-feathers clove-brown, but the others with the 

 basal half bright bay, the distal half brownish-black ; chin, 

 throat, and fore-part of the neck, ultra-marine blue, with a 

 large central spot of bright bay ; below the blue is a broad 

 black bar, then a line of white, and still lower down a band 

 of bright bay but the last two markings vary in extent and 

 one or the other is not unfrequently absent ; belly, flanks 

 and under tail-coverts dirty-white, the last sometimes tinged 

 with reddish-brown : legs, toes and claws, brown. 



The whole length of the bird six inches. From the carpus 

 to the end of the third and longest quill-feather, two inches 

 and seven-eighths. 



Females resemble the males in their uniform colour above ; 

 but beneath are more variable : the chin and upper part of 

 the throat is greyish-white, generally with an indication of 

 blue on the sides ; lower down there is commonly a mixture 

 of blue and of bay feathers, to which succeeds a band of blue 

 mixed with black, and then some feathers tinged with bay. 

 A female, however, killed from the nest in Norway, and now 

 in Mr. Alston's collection, has no appearance whatever of 

 either blue or bay on the throat, but has a broad dusky band 

 across the upper part of the breast. The belly in all cases 

 is whitish. Some old females are said to have the blue and 

 bay almost equal in colour to that of the males. 



The young in their first feathers resemble the young of 

 the Redbreast, but the throat is white, tinged more or less 

 with bay, and they have the characteristic tail of the adult. 



Young males after their first moult somewhat resemble 

 adult females and seem to be equally variable, but the wing- 

 feathers have broad tips or edgings of yellowish-brown. 



