CYANECULA SUECICA. 



(THE RED-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT.) 



Motacilla suecica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 336 (1766). 



Cyanecula suecica (L.), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 350 (1831); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 



p. 167 (1849) ; Layard & Kelaart, Cat. B. Prodromus, App. p. 57 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. 



& Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 267 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 311 



(1854) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 152 (1863) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 17 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 



1872, p. 454; Shelley, B. of Egypt, p. 85 (1872); Dresser, B. of Europe, pt. 26 



(1874) ; Seebohm & Harvie Brown, Ibis, 1876, p. 125 ; Scully, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 145. 

 Cyanecula ccerulecula (Pall.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 190. 

 The Bluethroat, Blue-throated Warbler of some ; The Blue-necked Warbler, Lath. ; The 



Swedish Nightingale, in Sweden. Hussenipidda, Hind. ; Gunpigera and Gurpedra, Beng. ; 



Bumbak, Sindh ; Chaghchi, Turki (Scully). 



Adult male. Length (from skin) 5-4 inches ; wing 2-9 to 3-1 ; tail 2-5 to 2-6 ; tarsus 0-95 to 1-05 ; middle toe and 

 claw 0-8 ; bill to gape 0-65. 



" Iris dark brown ; bill black, interior of mouth yellow : legs and feet black and brownish black; claws black" {Scully). 



Above, with the \rings earth-brown, pervaded slightly with greyish on the hind neck, and inclining to ochraeeous brown 

 on the rump ; primaries edged pale ; the longer upper tail-coverts darker brown than the back : the central tail- 

 feathers and the terminal third of the rest blackish brown ; the remaining portion of them and the middle tail- 

 coverts rufous. 



A broad buff supercilium, extending from the nostril to the ear-coverts ; lores blackish ; ear-coverts tawny ; chin, upper 

 part of throat, its sides, and the lower part of the fore neck glistening lazuline blue, in the centre of which is a 

 large rufous patch ; beneath the blue of the fore neck is a black band, succeeded by another and a broader one of 

 rufous ; remainder of under surface dull white ; under wing-coverts pale rufescent. 



The depth of the rufous colour and the extent of the black and rufous pectoral bands depend on age. Specimens 

 which show signs of immaturity in the presence of rufescent tippings to the wing-coverts have the throat-spot 

 and the rufous pectoral band much paler than fully-matured birds. 



Female. Wing 2-9 inches ; tarsus 0-9. 



Bill pale at the base ; legs pale brown, feet blaekish brown. 



Above similar to the male, but with the forehead and crown darker, the centres of the feathers being blackish brown ; 

 a broad supercilium and almost the entire loral space whitish ; throat and fore neck white, like the lower parts : 

 the sides of the fore neck and a zone connected with them across the chest blackish, on each side of which the 

 feathers are often tinged with rufescent and mingled with a few blue ones. 



In this species the females, probably those which are barren, occasionally assume the plumage of the male. Such an 

 example, in course of change, obtained in Heligoland by my friend Mr. Seebohm, has a white throat-patch, with 

 the lower part of it rufous, on each side of it is a black patch ; there is a blue zone across the chest, which shades 

 gradually into the blackish band. 



Young (Tenesay, Siberia, August, in Mus. Seebohm). Head, back, wing-coverts, throat, and chest blackish brown : the 

 feathers on the upper parts, sides of the throat, and chest with broad fulvous strise ; the chin and down the centre 

 of the throat fulvous ; wings blackish brown, the primaries and secondaries edged with rufescent ; tail the same, 

 upper tail-coverts dusky rufous : tail with the black terminal portions slightly deeper than in the adult, the rufous 

 bases the same in colour ; belly dusky whitish, the feathers tipped with blackish, which gradually increases up to 

 the chest ; under tail-coverts pale rufescent. 



After the autumn moult the nestling acquires a certain amount of blue on the throat. A Heligoland example killed in 

 May, which would be about ten or eleven months old, has a blue gorge, mingled with buff spottings, a small rufous 

 spot on the throat, immediately succeeded by the black zone, the feathers of which are tipped with white ; at the 

 next moult the blue colour spreads, and the rufous, as alreadv mentioned, deepens and becomes pure. 



3l2 



