PEEWIT. 485 



and occiput, black, forming a cap or hood, which ends 

 behind in a tuft of six or seven elongated, slender feathers, 

 slightly curved upwards, which the bird can elevate or 

 depress at pleasure ; behind the eye, on the cheeks and 

 sides of the neck, and reaching to the nape beneath the 

 plume, white, speckled with black ; an oblique streak of 

 black below the eye ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and 

 tertials, green, glossed with purple and copper-colour ; the 

 primaries black, the first three or four in each wing greyish 

 white at the end ; upper tail-coverts reddish chestnut ; the 

 basal half of the tail-feathers white, the rest black, the pro- 

 portion of white greater in the two or three outer feathers, 

 the extreme outside feather almost entirely white ; chin, 

 throat, and upper part of the breast shining black ; lower 

 part of the breast, belly, and vent, white ; under tail- 

 coverts fawn colour ; legs and toes dull orange brown ; 

 claws black. 



In winter the chin and throat are white ; the change to 

 the black of the breeding-season is obtained in April. The 

 sexes in plumage resemble each other, but the female has 

 the shorter occipital plume. 



The whole length a little more than twelve inches. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing nine inches : 

 the first quill-feather shorter than the fourth, but a little 

 longer than the fifth ; the second and third feathers equal 

 in length, and the longest in the wing. 



In young birds of the year, the plumage of the body 

 above is edged with buff. 



White, cream-coloured, and mouse-coloured varieties of 

 the Peewit have occasionally been obtained. 



