BRAMBLING. 99 



colour is generally washed here and there with patches of reddish brown^ 

 which look like underlying spots that have run. The overlying spots vary 

 from the size of No. 10 shot down to a point, and in colour from pale 

 reddish brown to very dark brown : sometimes they are absent altogether. 



The male Brambling in full breeding-plumage has the general colour of 

 the upper parts, including the sides of the neck, the ear-coverts, and the 

 cheeks, black glossed with blue on the head and dullest on the quills ; 

 lesser wing-coverts chestnut-buff; median wing-coverts white; greater 

 wing-coverts tipped with white. The centre of the rump is white, and a 

 spot of white is formed on the wing by the fourth and succeeding primaries, 

 which have the outside web white at the base. A narrow white margin is 

 also generally left on most of the quills and tail-feathers. The chin, throat, 

 and breast are chestnut-bufE, and the rest of the underparts are white with 

 black spots on the flanks. Bill bluish black ; legs, feet, and claws reddish 

 brown ; irides hazel. 



The Brambling is an excellent example of a bird which only moults in 

 autumn, but completely changes his appearance in spring by casting the 

 ends of the feathers. To such an extent is this the case that it would 

 almost be possible by carefully cutting ofE with a pair of scissors the chest- 

 nut-buff margins of the feathers, which nearly conceal the black of the 

 upper parts, to change a bird in autumn plumage to that of spring. This 

 process would not, however, quite complete the change. In autumn the 

 biU becomes bright yeUow tipped with horn-colour; the tips of the 

 greater wing-coverts and the margins of the innermost secondaries are 

 broad and chestnut-buff; the margins of the quills and tail-feathers are 

 also broader and greenish yellow, so that there must also be a change in 

 the colour of the feather. 



The young male in first winter plumage differs very slightly from the 

 adult, but the pale margins of the upper tail-coverts and the two central 

 rectrices extend almost over the whole feather as in the female. The 

 female very much resembles the male in autumn plumage, except that 

 all the colours are " duller, the black is replaced by brown, and the 

 chestnut-buff and white on the wing-coverts are reduced to an obscure 

 margin. Females in first winter plumage are very chestnut, and adults in 

 summer plumage are very grey, otherwise in this sex the changes produced 

 by age and season are very slight. 



Varieties of the Brambling occasionally occur with more or less black 

 on the chin and throat. 



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