364 BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE RED-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT. 



Cyanecula suecica suecica (L.). 

 Down-Plumage. Not examined. 

 Juvenile Plumage. Acquired by a complete moult. 



MALE and FEMALE. Feathers of the upper-side brownish-black, 

 with a median line of buff which broadens towards the tips ; upper 

 tail-coverts rufous speckled with black ; feathers of the chin, throat and 

 breast pale buff, with black edgings and tips ; belly whitish-grey 

 speckled with black ; under tail-coverts buff ; primaries and secondaries 

 dark brown, with narrow edgings and tips of pale buff ; primary-coverts 

 with rather broader edgings and tips of rufous-buff ; innermost 

 secondaries and greater wing-coverts with much broader edgings and 

 tips of rufous-buff ; median and lesser wing-coverts broadly tipped 

 with buff ; axillaries and under wing-coverts buff speckled with 

 black ; two central tail-feathers dark brown, edged and tipped with 

 buff, the rest the same, but with the basal half bright bay. 



First Winter-Plumage. Acquired by a complete moult, 

 with the exception of the remiges, primary-coverts and 

 greater wing-coverts and rectrices. 



MALE. Head dark brown streaked with black, which forms a 

 dark line on each side of the crown ; mantle, scapulars, back, rump 

 and upper tail-coverts dark brown, the latter with bay bases to the 

 feathers (when the plumage is fresh, the rump is often tinged 

 with rufous and the whole of the mantle and back are tinged with 

 buff owing to the feathers having a very narrow fringe of that 

 colour) ; superciliary stripe warm buff, becoming greyer behind the 

 eye ; ear-coverts dark brown streaked with buff ; moustachial stripe 

 metallic blue (in some specimens these blue feathers are very few, 

 and in some they are absent and are replaced by greyish-white 

 feathers) ; on each side of the chin and throat a brownish -black 

 line ; chin whitish ; throat rufous or rufous-buff, the amount of rufous 

 varying ; upper-breast metallic blue, forming a band, the feathers 

 when fresh being tipped with greyish-white (the feathers of the upper 

 part of the blue band have white and rufous bases and those of the lower 

 part black bases) ; below the blue band a black one, on the upper part 

 of which the feathers have narrow fringes of white ; these become 

 broader on the lower part of the band and thus form a white band, 

 which is followed by a chestnut band formed by the distal half of the 

 feathers being of that colour (the width and the depth of colour of this 

 band varies) ; lower-breast and belly huffish-white ; flanks greyish- 

 brown ; under tail-coverts buff ; tail- and wing-feathers and primary- 

 and greater wing-coverts as in the Juvenile, but the buff edgings and 

 tips considerably worn ; median and lesser wing-coverts dark brown 

 fringed with greyish. 



FEMALE. Upperside, wings and tail like those of the male ; 

 moustachial stripe, chin and throat buffish-white, sometimes flecked 

 with brownish-black ; lines on the sides of throat and the breast-band. 

 brownish-black, the feathers being fringed with greyish-white ; breast 

 below the black band brownish-grey, the feathers having a narrow 

 median stripe of dark brown (occasionally there are a few rufous-buff 

 feathers on the breast) ; belly, under wing-coverts and axillaries brownish- 

 white, not buffish-white, as in the male. 



