78 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol vii. 



FEMALE. 



Down-plumage. — Like that of the male but generally 

 darker on the under-parts and the eye-stripe narrower and 

 shorter. 



Jtjvenile-pltjmage. — Head and neck brownish-grey with 

 darker centres ; eye-stripe light grey with dark brown centres ; 

 mantle, scapulars, back, and rump dark brown with light 

 sandy-brown edges ; tail brown and worn at the tips ; upper- 

 wing above and including the lesser wing-coverts blackish -brown 

 edged with rich brown ; primaries nearly black ; secondaries 

 blackish-brown with a very narrow edge of pale greyish- 

 brown ; throat grey ; breast and belly pale grey-brown crossed 

 with dark greyish-brown bars and edged with sandy grey- 

 brown (the dark bars on the upper-breast are much broader 

 and more clearly defined than those on the belly, while the 

 flank-feathers near the rump are also more heavily barred). 



Note. — ^The juvenile female can be distinguished from 

 the juvenile male by its smaller eye-stripe and by its paler 

 upper-parts and darker upper-breast. 



First Winter-plumage. — As a rule the moult is 

 slower in the case of the female, which does not commence 

 its first winter-moult until early November. Then the 

 first feathers with broad reddish-brown edges appear 

 on the shoulders, lines of a chestnut-brown come in on 

 the head, and new black-barred rich brown ones on the 

 upper-breast and belly. So the advent of a first semi- 

 adult plumage proceeds slowly until March, when the 

 bird has an appearance somewhat similar to the adult 

 female except that the wings, tail, and long secondaries 

 have not been renewed, and on close examination there 

 are still a large number of the feathers of the juvenile- 

 plumage on the breast and belly. The tail is a most 

 variable feature. As a rule it is not renewed until the 

 end of the first year, but in very forward birds one or 

 two (generally those in the centre) new feathers are 

 gained in spring. By May these ten-months-old females 

 have the whole of the breast- and belly-feathers changed 

 and similar to adults. These young birds can however 

 always be distinguished from adult females by the dark 



