RAYS WAGTAIL. 421 
olive, rather darkest on the back; over the eye and ear- 
coverts a streak of brilliant gamboge yellow ; wing-coverts 
and quill-feathers dusky brown, the former tipped, the 
tertials edged and tipped, with yellowish white; upper 
tail-coverts olive; the two outer tail-feathers on each side 
white, with a streak of black on the inner web, all the 
others brownish black; the chin, throat, breast, and all 
the under surface of the body a bright, rich gamboge yel- 
low ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 
The whole length of the bird six inches and a half. 
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches 
and one eighth: the first three quill-feathers very nearly 
equal in length, but the first rather the longest. 
The plumage of the female at the same season of the 
year is much less rich in colour, the back being tinged 
with darker brown, and the under surface of the body of 
a less brilliant yellow. Young birds of the year, and the 
parent birds after the moult which immediately succeeds 
the breeding-season, resemble each other considerably ; the 
olivaceous band observed in some across the breast, is, I 
believe, a sign of youth, and probably remains till the first 
spring change, when the birds are nearly twelve months 
old. 
Having frequently examined specimens of our Wagtails 
in the spring of the year, when they were assuming either 
the change of colour, or the additional brilliancy of tint, 
peculiar to the breeding-season, without finding any new 
feathers in progress, | am induced to consider the vernal 
change in these birds as so many instances of alteration ef- 
fected in the colour of the old feathers, and not a change 
of the feathers themselves. 
