208 
“When the young quit the nest they still keep their parents company, wandering about the 
edges of the woods and open localities, appearing in the morning and evening on their feeding- 
grounds, retiring to the thickets at noon and at nightfall. Their food now is principally insects ; but 
in July, when the wild strawberries are ripe, these constitute their principal fare. This regular mode of 
life continues throughout this month until the latter end, when the moulting-season commences. Ву 
the end of August the moult is over, and the birds begin to flock, and then their regular nomad life 
commences. They frequent all the large woods, and draw near to those districts where the rowan 
tree and the wild rose abound, on the berries of which they live for the most part, until the autumn 
sends them southwards to their winter haunts.” 
Adult male in winter plumage. General colour above dark chocolate-brown, verging on chestnut, 
the feathers of the mantle showing obscure black centres; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 
ashy grey; the wing-coverts like the back, with faint ashy margins to the median and greater series; 
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, the primaries externally edged with brown, the 
outer ones fringed with grey, the secondaries externally chocolate-brown like the back, the innermost 
black on the inner web, brown on the outer one, with ashy ends to the feathers ; tail-feathers black; 
crown of head and hind-neck ashy-grey, the crown slightly streaked with blackish centres to the 
feathers ; nasal plumes, lores, and feathers below the eye black ; ear-coverts ashy-grey, as also the 
sides of the neck; cheeks and under surface of body rich mahogany-buff, the cheeks and throat 
narrowly streaked with black, these streaks becoming a little broader on the fore-neck and chest, the 
feathers on the side of the breast and chest being black with tawny edgings, which become greyish 
white on the flank-feathers ; lower flanks ashy-grey like the rump; centre of abdomen and under 
tail-coverts pure white, the latter streaked laterally with ashy-blackish ; thighs whitish, mottled with 
blackish bases to the feathers; axillaries and under wing-coverts pure white, some of the former 
with narrow black shaft-lines ; quill-lining ashy-grey: bill yellowish, horn-brown at tip; feet reddish 
brown, the toes darker; iris hazel. Total length 10 inches, culmen 0:9, wing 5:7, tail 3'8, 
tarsus 12. 
'The bird described is a very fine old male shot by myself at Cookham in the severe winter of 
1874, and there is very little difference between it and a male in the fullest breeding-plumage. In 
fact the winter plumage of a perfectly adult bird is finer in colour than that of any breeding 
specimen, as the feathers soon get abraded during the nesting-season. The older birds are 
distinguished by the greater amount of rufous on the throat and breast, younger birds having the 
centre of the breast white, as well as the abdomen. Considerable change takes place in the pattern 
of the feathers as the full plumage is gained, the black streaks on the throat and chest widening 
gradually and becoming spear-shaped, the dark colour of the flank-feathers being also apparently 
gradually assumed, the black sub-terminal bars following the outline of the feather and the basal 
- part being by degrees filled up, sometimes, it would seem, with rufous, which ultimately becomes 
black, and in this way the dark appearance of the sides of the body is produced, the last remains of 
the light centre to the feathers surviving as a white shaft-streak. 
Adult female. Scarcely differs from the male, but is, as a rule, not so highly coloured below. 
Total length 10 inches, wing 5:5. 
The young birds reproduce the colour of the adults, but have the back and scapulars 
mesially streaked with a line of whitish down the centre of the feathers, this white line bordered 
and tipped with blackish; the mesial streaks on the lesser and median coverts yellowish buff 
instead of white; the greater series with ashy-brown margins, whitish towards the ends; the 
head and neck browner than in the adults, as also the ear-coverts, which have whitish shaft- 
lines; lower back and rump ashy grey, with hoary-grey margins to the feathers; the upper tail- 
coverts dark slaty-grey with white shaft-streaks and fringes, the latter preceded by a sub-terminal 
A —— 
