382 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



coverts with V-shaped marks and long under tail-coverts more or 

 less vermiculated ash-grey ; axillaries, under wing-coverts and tail 

 as male ; wing as male but innermost secondaries and coverts as 

 scapulars but lighter, outer webs faintly edged blackish-grey ; 

 greater coverts as male but some with dusky-brown or ash-grey 

 tips ; median and lesser coverts as mantle but lighter, with dark 

 shafts and faintly tipped brownish-grey. This plumage is acquired 

 by complete moult in autumn. Hardly any birds in moult examined 

 and none with wings in quill, one (March) was moulting some body- 

 feathers but more material is required to determine if there is more 

 than one moult. 



Nestling. — Crown to below eye and centre of nape hair-brown 

 tinged tawny ; remaining upper-parts, sides of body and back of 

 thighs hair-brown or grey-brown (usually darker on back and 

 rump), down with buff -brown tips ; a white patch on wing, another 

 on either side of back above thighs and continuous with white of 

 under-parts (sometimes a small white patch on either side of back, 

 a little below wing), another on either side of rump ; black-brown 

 streak from above lores to eye ; above eye small whitish patch 

 tinged tawny ; streak of same from lores to below eye ; rest of 

 cheeks, sides of neck and rest of nape more or less suffused tawny ; 

 remaining under-parts white. 



Juvenile. Male and female. — Like adult female but feathers of 

 fore-head streaked sepia (edges of feathers lighter) ; rest of crown, 

 crest and nape buff -brown suffused greyish olive -brown, crest 

 much shorter and less abundant than in adult female ; from lores 

 to eye, a faint buff streak, feathers more or less streaked sepia ; 

 whole tone of upper-parts (especially scapulars) browner, not such 

 a blue-grey as in adult female, feathers of lower-nape without white 

 tips ; a white streak down centre of throat some feathers suffused 

 reddish cinnamon-brown ; sides of fore -neck as in adult female ; 

 lower-neck and sides of breast ash-grey or ash-brown, feathers 

 tipped white; sides of body and flanks as adult (sometimes browner) ; 

 long under tail-coverts palest ash-grey more or less tipped white ; 

 rest of under-parts white ; tail-feathers as adult but structure 

 juvenile ; wing as adult female but in most juvenile males median 

 coverts bordering bastard- wing more or less suffused pale greyish- 

 white, innermost secondaries in juvenile male longer than in juvenile 

 female, and sometimes those next speculum paler grey than in 

 adult or juvenile female. 



First winter. Male. — Like adult female in coloration but dis- 

 tinguished by black-brown mantle feathers tipped bluish ash-grey 

 and by pure white fore-neck bordering upper-breast. Like adult 

 female but sides of lower-nape white ; sides of upper-mantle and 

 upper-breast white, feathers more or less edged and vermiculated 

 ash-grey ; some new feathers of mantle and scapulars black-brown 

 tipped bluish ash-grey, some scapulars with pale ashy- white centres 

 or shadings, others with outer webs greyish-white and inner webs 

 ash-grey ; ash-grey feathers vermiculated whitish usually make 



