209 
line of blackish ; throat and breast yellowish buff, with triangular spots of black, wider and not so 
longitudinal as in the old birds; the breast and abdomen dull white, spotted all over with dusky 
blackish tips to the feathers; on each side of the upper breast a black patch. After the first 
moult the young birds are browner than the adults, and the following is the description I made in 
1871 of a bird from Tangier, which was figured in Sharpe and Dresser's * Birds of Europe ' (part ix.), 
and the exact counterpart of which I have never seen since :— 
“ Young male in first winter plumage. Upper surface of body dull brown, inclining to chestnut 
in the centre of the back; the nape and rump greyish, this shade of colour also extending to the 
upper tail-coverts, which are slightly shaded with brown. On being held towards the light a slight 
ashy edging to most of the back-feathers may be perceived. The wing-coverts are also dull 
chestnut-brown, with obsolete greyish margins; the quills and tail dull brown, with narrow whitish 
edgings and tips, the secondaries being almost entirely of a dull chestnut-brown, like the back and 
scapulars, the tail also slightly washed with brown; lores and a narrow eyebrow golden buff; the 
feathers in front and under the eye blackish; ear-coverts dull greyish, tinged with brown; cheeks, 
throat, breast, and flanks rich golden buff, mottled with black, the two former marked with little 
triangular dots, which do not collect or form a moustachial streak, but extend high up the throat, 
the intermediate chin being whitish ; the sides of the breast and flanks more thickly mottled with 
blackish, which has on the latter a strong chestnut shade; the whole of the lower breast and belly 
snowy white, the under tail-coverts slightly washed with brown ; the under wing-coverts and feathers 
on the sides of the upper breast pure white: bill horn-brown, the whole of the base of the lower 
mandible yellowish ; feet fleshy brown, the toes darker. 
“Та the following spring, when the bird takes his adult dress, no moult takes place, but the 
dull edgings to the feathers are cast off and the head and rump become blue-grey, this colour also 
pervading the edges of the quills; the brown triangular spots on the breast gradually dilate and 
widen out till they occupy the whole centre of the feather; the golden tinge on the breast is not 
so bright, and the flanks are strongly tinged with chestnut, while the black markings on them 
grow more pronounced and zigzag in shape; the bill becomes bright waxy yellow, and the feet 
simultaneously dark fleshy brown, the toes being exactly the same colour. These changes are 
exhibited in a specimen in Mr. Howard Saunders's collection, shot by Dr. Krüper in Macedonia 
on the 3rd of March, 1870." 
The figure of the adult bird is taken from a male killed in Heligoland in March 1878, and the 
young female from a Krasnojarsk specimen taken in July, both being in the Seebohm Collection. 
ГЕ. В. 8 
EA тесе, ceu 
~ ) 
Mace ИНЕШ кіс. өз, 
——  — 
з на tad NA rni ANE tt tr RT mee 
