margins well (.lelined, may set tlio rule. Again in llic seven 
females liaving “return” margins, I find the number of wa.\.-tii>s 
range, without exception, from six to eight in each wing; hut even 
the female from Worstead (Xo. 75), with eight tip.s, had all the 
“return” margins white, whilst No. 20, in which the “return,” 
tliough white, was the most sharply deiined, had but six small 
tips to each Aving. 
^Ir. olley 3 nestling and tlio parent birds afford us some 
clue as to the gradual assumption of the yellow tinge on the 
l)rimary ])atchos. Thus, in the nestling itself we still find the 
l^atehes on the outer web of the primaries, though small, the 
largest being about fivo-si.xteeuths of an inch (the same measuring 
over threo-oighths of an inch in some males), and the majority of them 
puic Avhito; yet two or throe of the middle ones are already showing 
a trace of yellow, appai’ontly spreading itself by degrees over the white. 
In the parent birds, oven the male is scarcely more forward in 
this respect, having but three or four of the patches tinged with 
}ellow, whilst in the female all the patches are white but one; 
and in neither is there the .slightest indication of “return” margins. 
..'Vs before stated, the female I possess, which can scarcely bo said 
to have any wax-tips, has all but one of these patches pure white 
and small ; and 1 am inclined to believe that no female nestling 
uould be found to have any yellow on the primary patches; in 
other words, that the assumption of the yellow tinge is probably, 
more gradual in the female than in the male. 
rLUM.VGE XO CeRT.UX Te.ST OF SeX. 
aNolwithstanding the experience gained by the e.xamination of so 
many and A-arious specimens I must still admit that, otherwise than 
by dissection, I know of no cerfain test of sex. In this opinion, 
amongst the most recent authorities, I am borne out by Professor 
NoAvton in the fourth edition of Yarrell’s ‘British Birds,’ and by 
Mr. K. L. Dresser in his ‘Birds of Europe.’ !My friend 31r. 
Seebohm, hoAvever, to Avhoso judgment I AA'ould giA’e all due Aveight 
from his acpiaintance with this species, both in this country and 
abroad, and the examination, from time to time, of a large series 
ot specimens, is inclined to decide the question of sex “ by the 
markings on the wings,” and in his most interesting work on 
