WHINCHAT. 
49 
of the face, separating the dark ear-coverts from the delicate 
pale orange of the throat and breast; the rest of the under¬ 
parts are pale buff. The entire wing is of dark brown fea¬ 
thers, bordered with orange-brown, with the exception of 
some of the greater coverts towards the body, which are pure 
white ; another patch of white occupies the base of the coverts 
of the primary quills. The tail, which is very short, and ex¬ 
tends less than half an inch beyond the wings, has the basal 
half of its feathers white, the terminal half dusky, bordered 
with pale brown. 
The female bears much resemblance to the male in the dis¬ 
tribution of her colours ; the different tints are not, however, 
so pure and distinct, and the white patches are of less 
extent. 
The young birds are far inferior in beauty to the adult in 
spring ; they have neither the white lines and patches, nor 
the well-defined dark band through the eye, nor the beautiful 
grey upon the back ; their entire upper plumage is dull yel¬ 
lowish-brown, streaked longitudinally with dark brown, the 
tips of many of the feathers paler; the ear-coverts are pale 
and ill defined, and the streaks above and below them dirty 
brown ; no white is yet to be observed upon the plumage, 
except at the basal part of the feathers of the tail. 
The length of this species is a little more than five inches. 
The wing, from the carpus to the tip, measures two inches 
seven lines ; the first quill-feather is less than an inch in 
length; the third and fourth are nearly equal, and are the 
longest in the wing. The tarsus measures about nine lines, 
the middle toe the same ; the claws are long, slender, and 
remarkably sharp. The beak is four lines from the forehead 
to the tip, and seven from the tip to the gape. 
The egg of the Whinchat figured in our plate is No. 55. 
