358 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



by a body -moult Sept. to March. N.B. — Some feathers of head and 

 neck may be renewed in spring but otherwise no moult. 



Adult female. Eclipse. — Feathers of head, neck, mantle, 

 scapulars, some of back, rump and upper tail- coverts and upper - 

 breast are first moulted followed by wings, tail and rest of body- 

 feathers in Aug. and Sept. Both wings are shed together as in 

 male. Upper -parts especially head are much darker than in winter 

 and summer. Crown brown-black ; nape ash-brown, feathers more 

 or less edged buff ; mantle, scapulars and new feathers of back and 

 rump and upper -breast with paler and narrower edges than in 

 winter-summer ; cheeks and sides of neck thickly streaked black- 

 brown ; chin and throat ashy-white or buffish narrowly streaked 

 black-brown ; sides of body and flanks dark ash-brown ; under 

 tail-coverts paler, tipped light or pink-buff and with a subterminal 

 black-brown bar or shading. 



Nestling. — Crown, nape, upper-parts and sides of body sepia 

 or black-brown, long down filaments tinged buff-brown at tip ; 

 broad buff eye -stripe from lores to hinder -crown, below which a 

 black- brown streak encircling eye and continued to nape (these 

 streaks in some obsolete) ; lores and cheeks sepia ; chin and throat 

 brownish -white, in some a white streak on either side of chin ; re- 

 maining under -parts brownish- white darker on upper -breast, dusky - 

 brown on belly and vent. Loral and frontal feathering as adult. 



Juvenile. Male. — Easily distinguished from adult female by 

 darker upper-parts, feathers with narrower buff edges, and under - 

 parts hair-brown, feathers narrowly tipped buff. Crown black- 

 brown, feathers of fore -head edged buff ; broad whitish band from 

 point of frontal angle above eye to hinder-crown, feathers narrowly 

 streaked black-brown ; nape hair-brown or dark ash-brown ; rest 

 of upper-parts black-brown, feathers more or less shading to 

 blackish subterminally and edged light or warm buff, edges narrower 

 and less defined on back ; feathers of sides of rump barred buff and 

 blackish ; cheeks and sides of neck dark hair-brown or dark ash- 

 brown (chin, throat and fore -neck paler) narrowly streaked black- 

 brown or dusky-brown, streaks sometimes ill-defined ; feathers of 

 upper-breast barred towards tips black-brown and whitish or buff ; 

 sides of body, flanks and under tail-coverts sepia, feathers barred 

 black-brown (in some barred buff) and tipped buff ; remaining under- 

 pays hair-brown or sooty-brown, feathers with ill-concealed light 

 drab bases and tipped light or warm buff ; axillaries and under 

 wing- coverts as adult female ; tail as adult female but tips square 

 and shafts projecting ; wing as adult female but secondaries black- 

 brown, inner webs hair-brown, white tips absent or at most ill- 

 defined, innermost secondaries black-brown, sometimes narrowly 

 edged buff ; wing-coverts hair-brown mostly tipped warm or light 

 buff, sometimes shaded or barred black- brown towards tips. 



Juvenile. Female. — As male but secondaries lighter, innermost 

 shorter and less sickle shaped, feathers of back and rump often with 

 broader buff edges. 



