( 360 ) 

 SEQUENCE OF PLUMAGES IN BRITISH BIRDS. 



IV. THE BRITISH STONECHAT, THE BRITISH AND 



CONTINENTAL REDBREASTS AND RED-SPOTTED AND WHITE- 

 SPOTTED BLUETHROATS. 

 BY 

 H. F. WITHERBY. 



THE BRITISH STONECHAT. 

 Pratincola torquata hibernans, Hartert.* 

 Down-Plumage. Dark-grey, of moderate length. Dis- 

 tribution. — Inner supra-orbital, occipital, humeral and spinal 

 tracts, scanty on the two last (fide, C. B. Ticehurst, Vol. III., 

 p. 151). 



Juvenile Plumage. Acquired while in the nest, the Down- 

 Plumage being completely moulted. 



MALE. Top of head black, each feather with a narrow mesial 

 buff line ; nape the same, but with broader wedge-shaped buff lines ; 

 mantle, scapulars and back the same, but with rufous markings on each 

 side of the buff wedge ; upper tail-coverts with long rufous fringes ; chin, 

 throat and sides of neck greyish-buff speckled with black ; breast more 

 rufous-buff, with large black spots ; belly and under tail-coverts buff ; 

 flanks the same, but sparsely spotted with black ; under wing-coverts 

 buff speckled with black ; axillaries greyish-white, with black bases ; 

 tail-feathers brownish -black, with rufous-buff edgings and tips ; wing- 

 feathers the same, but the edging very narrow in the primaries and 

 becoming broader as the innermost secondary is reached, the innermost 

 secondary with the basal half of the outer web white, and the two next 

 with the basal third white, all the wing-feathers narrowly edged with 

 bumsh-white on the inner web ; primary-coverts brownish-black, 

 with buff edges and tips ; innermost greater wing-coverts white, with 

 buff tips, the next outwards partially black and whita, and the rest 

 black, with rufous-buff edges and tips ; median wing-coverts black, 

 with rufous-buff fringes, the innermost with bumsh-white fringes ; 

 lesser wing-coverts black, with rufous-buff fringes. 



FEMALE. Like that of the male, but • the three innermost 

 secondaries without any white, but with a small buff spot at the base of 



* The Siberian Stonechat (Pratincola torquata maura), which has 

 been once obtained in England (vide antea, Vol. I., p. 7), may always 

 be distinguished in Winter- and Summer-Plumage : in the male by the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts having no black markings, the bases of 

 the tail-feathers being white, the bases of the outer webs of five of the 

 innermost secondaries being white, and by the inner webs of all the 

 wing-feathers having a much broader margin of pure white ; the belly 

 being whiter and the neck-patches larger ; in the female by the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts being white, with buff tips ; the tail-feathers 

 having some greyish-white at the base ; the innermost secondaries 

 having white at the base of the outer web. 



