A Q U A T I C ^V A R R L E R , 
83 
following remarks: — ‘‘This egg comes from the environs 
of Angers. I had it from M. de Barace, a distinguished 
ornithologist. The nest is in the form of a cone, cleverly 
constructed. It contains four or five eggs, of a dirty 
greenish grey, with olive spots more or less dark, 
generally forming a wreath at the thicker end. I have 
seen some specimens of a deeper grey. Great diameter 
seventeen to eighteen millemetres, small twelve to 
thirteen.” 
The male and female in breeding-plumage have the 
upper 23ai'ts a pretty ash grey, passing to yellow red 
on the rump and upper tail coverts, with black spots, 
forming two longitudinal bands on the vertex, small 
and less apparent on the neck, deep and large on the 
back, narrow on the tail coverts; inferior parts of a 
yellow russet, very clear, becoming white on the throat 
and on the middle of the belly; a large superciliary 
band, the same .colour as the throat; another, brown, 
above the ears, larger over the auditory orifice; wing 
coverts brown, thickly bordered with ash grey; pri- 
maries blackish, bordered with grey; tail quills brown, 
bordered with greyish, the most external of each having 
an ashy tint. Beak brown above, yellowish below and 
on the edges of the mandibles; feet yellowish, with 
the bottom of the toes yellow ; iris bright brown ; 
first primary short, second and third equal and the 
longest. 
In autumn the plumage is yellow russet above, with 
black spots in the centre of the feathers, as in spring; 
below of a clearer russet; all the quills of the wings 
and tail bordered with yellowish red or grey. 
A'oung after the first moult resemble the old birds, 
but have on the neck and flanks brown striee, more or 
less numerous. — (Degland.) 
