WHEATEAR. 283 
The whole length of the adult bird is six inches and a 
half. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill- 
feather, three inches and seven-eighths: the first feather 
very short; the second as long as the fifth; the third and 
fourth equal in length, and the longest in the wing. 
In the adult female, durmg the breeding season, the 
ear-coverts are dark brown; the grey of the back and the 
buff of the under surface of the body are each clouded with 
brown. 
Immediately after the breeding season the annual moult- 
ing takes place, and the plumage of old and young is then 
very similar: the beak and the colours of the cheeks are 
much the same as before, but the top of the head, back, 
and scapulars are reddish brown, slightly tinged with grey; 
each feather being grey at the base, but brown at the tip, 
the brown thus hiding the grey: the wing-coverts, secon- 
daries, and tertials, broadly edged with reddish brown ; 
the tail-feathers tipped with buff; the reddish buff-colour 
of the chin and throat, and the paler buff colour of the 
belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, are much more intense 
in colour and richness. This change, as before remarked, 
is produced by the regular autumnal moult, and the brown 
colour remains all the winter; but in the following spring 
the change from the brown to the grey appearance is 
effected by the wearing off of the brown tips and margins 
of all the feathers that were previously so coloured ;—an 
illustration of one of the modes by which changes of ap- 
pearance are effected, as referred to at the bottom of page 
166. These brown edges disappear from the quill-feathers 
of the wings before the brown colour is lost on the feathers 
of the head, neck, back, and scapulars. On these last- 
named parts the change from brown to grey is gradual, 
and many shades of difference may be observed in different 
