CYANECULA SUECICA. 
(THE RED-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT.) 
Motadlla suecica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 336 (1766). 
Cyanecula suecica (L.), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 350 (1831); Blyth, Cat. B. Miis. A. S. B. 
p. 167 (1849) ; Layard & Kelaart, Cat. B. Prodromus, App. p. 67 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. 
& Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 267 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 311 
(1854) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 152 (1863) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 17 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 454; Shelley, B. of Egypt, p. 85 (1872); Dresser, B. of Europe, pt. 26 
(1874) ; Seebohm «& Harvie Brown, Ibis, 1876, p. 125 ; Scully, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 145. 
Cyanecula cocrulecula (Pall.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 190. 
The Bluethroat, Blue-throated Warbler of some ; The Blue-necked Warbler, Lath. ; The 
Swedish Nightingale, in Sweden. Hussenipidda, Hind. ; Gunpigera and Gurpedra, Beng. ; 
Dumbak, Sindh ; Chaghchi, Turki (Scully). 
Adult male. Length (from skin) 5-4 inches ; wing 2-9 to 3'1 ; tail 2‘5 to 2’6 ; tarsus 0’95 to 1'05 j middle toe and 
claw 0-8 ; bill to gape 0-65. 
“ Iris dark brown ; bill black, interior of mouth yellow ; legs and feet black and brownish black j claws black ” {Scully). 
Above, with the wiugs earth-brown, pervaded slightly with greyish on the hind neck, and inclining to oohraceous brown 
on the rump ; primaries edged pale ; the longer upper tail-coverts darker brown than the back ; the central tail- 
feathers and the terminal third of the rest blackish brown ; the remaining portion of them and the middle tail- 
coverts rufous. 
A broad buff supercilium, extending from the nostril to the ear-coverts ; lores blackish ; ear-coverts tawny ; chin, upper 
part of throat, its sides, and the lower part of the fore neck glistening lazuline bine, in the centre of which is a 
large rufous patch ; beneath the blue of the fore neck is a black band, succeeded by another and a broader one of 
rufous ; remainder of under surface dull white ; under wing-coverts pale rufescent. 
The depth of the rufous colour and the extent of the black and rufous pectoral bands depend on age. Specimens 
which show signs of immaturity in the presence of rufescent tippings to the wing-coverts have the throat-spot 
and the rufous pectoral band much paler than fully-matured birds. 
Female. "VVing 2-9 inches ; tarsus 0-9. 
Bill pale at the base ; legs pale brown, feet blackish brown. 
Above similar to the male, but with the forehead and crown darker, the centres of the feathers being blackish brown : 
a broad supercilium and almost the entire loral space whitish ; throat and fore neck white, like the lower parts ; 
the sides of the fore neck and a zone connected with them across the chest blackish, on each side of which the 
feathers are often tinged with rufescent and mingled with a few blue ones. 
In this species the females, probably those which are barren, occasionally assume the plumage of the male. Such an 
example, in course of change, obtained in Heligoland by my friend Mr. Seebohm, has a white throat-patch, with 
the lower part of it rufous, on each side of it is a black patch ; there is a blue zone across the chest, which shades 
gradually into the blackish band. 
Young (Tenesay, Siberia, August, in Mus. Seebohm). Head, back, wing-coverts, throat, and chest blackish brown ; the 
feathers on the upper parts, sides of the throat, and chest with broad fulvous striee ; the chin and down the centre 
of the throat fulvous ; wings blackish brown, the primaries and secondaries edged with rufescent ; tail the same, 
upper tail-coverts dusky rufous ; tail with the black terminal portions slightly deeper than in the adult, the rufous 
bases the same in colour ; belly dusky whitish, the feathers tipped with blackish, which gi-adually increases up to 
the chest; under tail-coverts pale rufescent. tt r i a 
After the autumn moult the nestling acquires a certain amount of blue on the throat. A Heligoland example killed in 
May, which would be about ten or eleven months old, has a blue gorge, mingled with buff spottings, a small rufous 
spot on the throat, immediately succeeded by the black zone, the feathers of which are tipped with white ; at the 
next moult the blue colour spreads, and the rufous, as already mentioned, deepens and becomes pure. 
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