THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
wings and tail partially grown; it has the chin, throat, cheeks and fore- 
part of the neck clad in white feathers, barred and edged with black, 
giving these parts an irregularly mottled appearance, which is no doubt 
protective, and very similar to that assumed by the blackcock in August. 
Males in first autumn-plumage. — By December young males are very 
similar in plumage to the adult, but may be recognized by their much 
smaller size and by the absence of the marbled white band across the 
tail-feathers. 
Adult female. — Head, neck, and upper parts of the body black, barred 
with rufous -buff, and tipped with white, except on the back ; wing -coverts 
and secondary quills similar, but the buff markings are more broken 
and irregular; the primary quills and their coverts dark brown, mottled 
with rufous on the outer web. Throat and fore -neck rufous -buff, shading 
into darker rust-red on the chest; rest of the underparts rufous -buff, 
barred with black and tipped with white; legs soiled white, mottled with 
black. Tail chestnut, barred with black and tipped with white. Axillaries 
and under wing-coverts white, marked with black and rufous. Bill 
brownish horn-colour, paler at the tip and along the edges, feet greyish- 
brown. Total length about 25 inches; wing 11*7 inches; tail 7*3 inches; 
tarsus 2*1 inches. 
In some adult females the white tips of the body feathers are 
almost or entirely wanting, and the breast and abdomen are nearly 
uniform rufous -buff, with less conspicuous black bars. These differences 
in plumage appear to be purely individual, and seem to represent a rufous 
phase of coloration. It should be noted that the under tail-coverts do 
not extend nearly to the end of the middle tail-feathers. (Fig. 1.) 
Females in first autumn -plumage resemble the adult. 
Young birds of both sexes in first plumage are much like the female, but the 
wing -coverts and scapulars have buff shaft -stripes and a buff spot at 
the extremity of the feathers. 
Young in down. — ^Top of the head buff, mottled with black, and with 
a V-shaped blackish mark on the forehead ; an irregular black band 
behind the eyes and extending on to the sides of the neck; in some a trans- 
verse blackish band across the whitish-buff occiput; nape, wing-coverts, 
and rump pale fawn-colour; back mottled with greyish-buff, and with a 
very irregular double line of black on each side of the spine; remainder 
of the head and underparts pale buff, inclining to yellowish -white on the 
throat. 
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