158 



GAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Adult Female in Summer. — The female in her summer dress 

 is a very different bird, and has the top of the head broadly 

 barred with black and deep yellow or buff; back and sides of 

 neck and head, yellowish white, barred or spotted with black; 

 entire upper parts, including upper tail-coverts, vermiculattd 

 with black and deep buff (some feathers almost black), edged 

 and tipped with buff or white, this being particularly the case 

 upon the upper part of back near the neck; wings, like the back, 

 but primaries and secondaries white, the shrifts of former, brown; 

 tail, dark brown, the feathers with white bases and white edges 

 to the tips ; four median feathers, black, irregularly barred with 

 white, and tipped with white ; throat, yellowish white, becoming 

 pale buff on the breast, the latter broadly barred in waving lines, 

 with black ; flanks, also buff, with broad brownish black bars ; 

 lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, buffy white, with oc- 

 casional black bars visible; thighs, white; feathers of legs and feet, 

 yellowish white; bill and claws, pale horn color. Total length, 

 about 12^ inches; wing, 6|; tail, 4f ; bill at gape, |; tarsus, if. 



Adult Female In Autumn resembles the summer plumage of 

 the male, but has a generally more grayish appearance, and with 

 the back more conspicuously and profusely blotched with black; 

 no indication of black upon the lores, but upon the flanks are oc- 

 casional feathers broadly barred with black and white, the latter 

 sometimes tinged with yellow, as is characteristic of the summer 

 dress of the adult female; the throat and neck are more conspicu- 

 oUvSly barred with black and white than in the male, and have 

 more the appearance of a white ground barred with black; the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts are pure white, and the tail 

 feathers are tipped with white. 



Winter Plumage, pure white, with a black loral streak in the 

 male. 



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