340 
‘Siberia in Europe’'^ he -writes of tbo 'Waxwiug (p. 145, note) 
“ In females the wldtG viarlc at tlie end of the primary quill 
feathers is eonfined to the outside -web, and resembles the letter I, 
and is only slightly suffused with yellow. The wax-like appendages 
to the secondaries are comparatively small. In the male a similar 
white mark [the italics are mine] is continued at the end of the 
inner web, making the mark resemble the letter V. This mark 
is generally suffused Avith deep yelloAV, and the Avax-like appendages 
are tAvice the size of those of the female. It must be borne in 
mind, hoAvever, that the male bears the plumage of the female until 
after the second autumn moult.” In this description, Mr. Seebohm’s 
I and V marks on the primaries correspond to my “yelloAV patch” 
on the outer, and “return” margins on the inner Aveb. 
The term while mark, as applied to the former should, I think, 
read light mark, as it varies so much in colour in different specimens, 
both male and female. In some males, as Avell as females, it is 
pure Avhite ; and in females, occasionalljq is only “ suffused Avith 
yelloAv,” to use klr. Seebohm’s expression ; but I have never found 
it so vivid in females as in some males. 
I cannot agree, however, that the I mark is always eonfined 
to the outside AA^eb in the females (see a.nte p. 338), as the list 
indicates that in scA^en females (ascertained by dissection) the 
I mark had become a Y, though this special mark of perfection 
of plumage is, so far as my observations go, invariably xchite in the 
female, AA'ith the dark portions of the Avebs more hair-broAvn than 
black. Then, as to the Avax-like appendages in the males, Mr. 
Scebohm says they are “ tA\dce the size of those of the females ; 
but that this does not hold good in all instances is shoAvn at 
p. 330, as also, that, in both sexes, as high a number as seven 
Avax-tips may still make but a poor shoAV as to size. 
INIr. Seebohm’s remark, also, as to the male bearing “the plumage 
of the female until after the second autumn moult,” should be 
* In a communication to Dresser’s ‘Birds of Europe’ Mr. Scebolmi 
makes similar but someAvbat more extended remarks on the pltimage of both 
sexes, but the only other point to Avhicli I need allude here is Avith reference 
to the occasional red tips to the tail-feathers, which peculiarity, he says, is 
found in both males and females ; but, as shown at p. 334, I failed to 
discover the slightest trace of caudal appendages in any of the females I 
examined in 1SG6-G7. 
