Plumages of the Common Moorhen. 2S9 



the nestling to the full adults, including the annual moult, 

 as follows : — 



(1) Nestling (May to August). — Above glossy oily green, 

 including wings ; sides of headj throat, and neck with long 

 silver-white tips ; flanks sooty black ; breast and abdomen 

 sooty brown. 



Soft parts : Irides hazel ; bare skin of throat and neck 

 chrome-yellow^ ; beneath eye greenish yellow^ above eye 

 bright blue; head between eyes yellow; base of head 

 reddish orange; egg-tooth yellow; beak reddish orange, 

 dusky at tip; skin of wings yellow ; legs and toes sooty. 



In an older nestling, which is just showing signs of the 

 first plumage, the back is more sooty black — that is to say, 

 the oily green is less apparent. 



In the soft parts the blue over the eye is gone and the 

 yellow on the wings nearly gone. 



(2) \st plumage (July and August). — Above olivaceous 

 brown, with a very slight sheen ; top of head and neck practi- 

 cally without sheen and slightly darker ; flight-feathers and 

 tail usually rather browner than in the adult ; sides of head, 

 chest, and flanks brown ; throat white, f ulvesceut in youngest 

 specimens; breast and belly whitish ; abdomen white, tinged 

 with fulvous in youngest specimens; flank-stripes fulvous 

 white. 



Soft parts : Irides greyish brown ; bill in youngest speci- 

 mens brown, light at tip, sometimes mottled with greenish, in 

 older specimens more dull olive ; legs and toes dark green, 

 yellow on tibia. 



The frontal shield is insignificant, and coloured like the 

 beak. 



One August bird is rapidly getting feathered, but the 

 wings are still in the state of the nestling ; another is almost 

 fully fledged, the flight and tail-feathers coming in all together, 

 as is normal in all birds assuming their first dress ; two 

 other August and one July bird are fully developed. 



In September, October, and the first half of November, the 

 birds are in their first moult, and are assuming the second 

 plumage. 



