1080 The Zoologist — February, 1868. 



brown. Centre of breast and belly white. Under tail-coverts white, 

 often with transverse dark markings. Feet dark flesh ; instep or front 

 of tarsus brown; ankle tinged with livid. Bill flesh at base, black at 

 point. Inside of mouth and lips livid flesh-colour, hides brown ; 

 orbits dark. 



Type of the Primary Wing Quills. — First six blackish brown, 

 getting grayer and the gray more extended, consecutively, from the 

 pen upwards through the filaments of the inner web ; the same occurs 

 in the outer web, but not so bold or conspicuous. Seventh and eighth 

 may be called gray, with more or less of a dark end and white tip. 

 Ninth and tenth more subdued than the two preceding ; often the end 

 of the tenth is all white ; part of the outer filament at the edge is 

 brown. These quills remain till the following autumn, the bird being 

 then more than a year old : they of course bleach and wear with the 

 seasons, and consequently their appearance changes considerably. 

 To follow these bleachings would be endless and unnecessary here — 

 unnecessary because the quills cannot be confounded with any other 

 age, each year having quite a distinct primary-quill plumage. At 

 any lime in its first year the quills will distinguish it. The secondary 

 quills also vary more or less, but are also quite distinct in the second 

 year. 



No. 4, Link 2. First Autumn or Second Moult. — The moult begins 

 in August, extending sometimes to December and January. The head, 

 neck, some of the back and scapular plumage, the throat, breast and 

 belly, alone partake in this moult. The new feathers of the back and 

 scapulars are the colour of the adults; those of the other parts but 

 a purer and more solid feather than that of first plumage. 



No. 5. First Winter Plumage (from a well-developed bird shot in 

 the month of December). Celestial Surface. — Head and neck white, 

 each feather having a spot of black at the tip ; towards the shoulders 

 these spots assume more the appearance of blotches ; before the eye 

 is clouded with dark — there are many black hairs before it. The 

 difference in this part of the plumage is not very striking from that of 

 first plumage, except that the markings are belter defined and of a 

 darker colour. The back and scapulars consists of three kinds of 

 feathers: first, many of the first plumage's brown feathers; secondly, 

 some of the brown feathers of the first plumage transmuting by change 

 of pigment to lavender (these feathers appear gray, shaded and marked 

 with brown) ; thirdly, those assumed by moult, which are, as the 

 adult, lavender. It is extremely rare to get a first winter common 



