260 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



blackish, these tips narrower on belly and almost disappearing on 

 vent which is white ; feathers of sides of belly and flanks white, 

 tips faintly speckled blackish, some feathers more or less suffused 

 pale tawny ; new under tail-coverts light ochraceous-buff ; tail 

 and wings as winter. 



Adult female. Eclipse. — Like adult male eclipse but head 

 browner, new feathers of lower -neck bordering upper-mantle white 

 tipped dusky-brown, and those of upper-mantle dark ash-grey 

 indistinctly vermiculated pale tawny and whitish and faintly 

 tipped whitish ; tawny patch at sides of upper-breast merely 

 indicated ; centre of breast and belly practically white ; new 

 flank-feathers with faint terminal dusky lines. Tail and wings as 

 winter. 



Adult female. Winter and summer. — As male, but head and 

 neck usually duller, more brown-black with less greenish gloss but 

 sometimes as brilliant as male ; in some fore -head and lores more 

 or less white owing to exposure of white bases by abrasion of tips ; 

 feathers round base of bill and lores brownish (sometimes feathers 

 of chin, fore -neck and sides of neck faintly tipped white) ; most 

 feathers of tawny band on mantle vermiculated black towards tip 

 and narrowly tipped black or white (more or less lost by abrasion) ; 

 tawny breast-band narrower, feathers in some vermiculated black ; 

 black of breast and belly not so intense as in male and area less 

 extensive, feathers with broader white bases imperfectly con- 

 cealed ; under tail-coverts pale cinnamon -rufous, long- ones white. 

 Moult as in male. 



Nestling. — Down on fore -head, lores, cheeks and narrow eye- 

 stripe (in some absent) white ; crown, centre of nape and of upper - 

 mantle, mantle, broad bar on wing, centre of back and rump and 

 patch on back of thighs extending to sides of rump, sooty-brown or 

 light chocolate-brown ; small patch in centre of mantle (in some 

 ill-defined) and irregular streak on sides of back and rump white ; 

 under -parts white. 



Juvenile. Male and female. — Easily distinguished from adults 

 by absence of tawny and black coloration. Fore -head and lores 

 almost to eye white ; crown black or black- brown, feathers narrowly 

 tipped buff-brown ; nape, cheeks and sides of neck black or black- 

 brown, feathers with very narrow white tips ; line above and patch 

 below eye white ; centre of upper-mantle pale hair-brown, feathers 

 with imperfectly concealed white bases ; sides of upper-mantle 

 more or less white ; mantle hair -brown or blackish hair -brown, 

 feathers narrowly edged white, some white and some with dista] 

 halves vermiculated hair-brown and washed ochraceous-buff ; 

 scapulars hair-brown merging into buff-brown at edges, lower 

 scapulars mouse-grey ; lower-back, rump and upper tail-coverts 

 white, latter vermiculated brown-grey towards tips and in some 

 tipped black-brown ; chin and patch from lores to below eye white ; 

 fore-neck white, feathers mostly tipped dusky-brown ; remaining 

 under-parts white but sometimes sides of upper- breast tinged buff 



