WALL CREEPER. 
IGl 
head, rump, and under tail coverts, blackish grey; 
Rape and back grey; checks, throat, and front of neck 
deep black; abdomen black; the under tail coverts tipped 
with white; wing coverts and basal half of the external 
web of the wing feathers of a deep crimson; the rest 
of the feathers blackish brown, with two large round 
spots on the internal web of the first four true primaries, 
and one on the fifth. Secondaries tipped with white; 
tail black, with the two most external quills broadly 
terminated with white, and the others more narrowly 
with grey. Beak, feet, and iris, black. 
The male in autumn and winter is of a distinct grey 
above, with a slight russet colour on the head ; the 
throat and chest white, slightly tinged with the same; 
the dark parts of the abdomen are less deep than in 
spring. 
The female resembles the male in winter plumage. 
The young of the year have the primaries and tail 
quills tipped with grey, and the colours above and 
below less pure than in the adult. After the first moult 
the two sexes and the young are alike in plumage. 
My figure is taken from a skin in autumn plumage, 
killed at Geneva, and kindly sent me by Mr. Tristram. 
The egg is fi'om a specimen sent by the same gentleman. 
The bird has been also figured by Buffon, pi. enl. 
3T2, fig. i. male in spring, fig. ii. male in autumn, given 
as the female. Boux, Ornith. Prov., pi. 238 ; Bouteil, 
Ornith. du Dauph, pi. 3T, f. 4; Naumann, Vogel Deutsch- 
lands, pi. 141, male in summer and winter plumage; 
Gould, B. of E., pi. 239. 
VOL. III. 
