8 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



some precipitous rock, and Meyer says occasionally 

 in high pine trees : it is a slight affair, made of dry 

 sticks. 



The following descriptions are taken from a 

 young male, or Red Tiercel, and an adult female 

 in my own collection, the former shot in this 

 county, the latter at Seaton. Bill blue ; cere dull 

 greenish yellow ; irides hazel ; the front part of the 

 forehead whitish with some long black hairs ; head 

 brown, feathers edged with lighter yellowish brown 

 and white; a dark brown band making a sort of 

 moustache extends from the base of the beak part 

 way down each side of the throat ; the throat itself 

 white, narrowly streaked with brown ; nape brown, 

 with a few almost white feathers, making a sort of 

 collar ; all the upper parts dark brown, each feather 

 narrowly edged with light rusty brown; tail dark 

 brown, each feather spotted rather than barred with 

 rusty, tips nearly white ; all the under parts brown, 

 each feather very broadly margined with yellowish 

 white and white, giving it more the appearance of 

 those colours than brown; quills dusky; legs greenish 

 yellow. Adult female: Bill blue; cerej-ellow; hides 

 yellow; head, nape, back scapulars and wing-coverts 

 bluish ash, barred with darker ; rump and tail- 

 coverts lighter bluish ash than the rest of the back, 

 barred more narrowly with dark ; tail barred with 

 two shades of bluish ash, tips of the feathers white ; 

 quills dusky ; as in the case of the young bird, a 



