THE WHEATEARS. 
291 
Adult Female. — Duller in colour than the male, being every- 
where browner, but with the same white rump and tail-markings; 
base of forehead slightly paler brown than the head; the fore 
part of the eyebrow brownish-white, the hinder part purer 
white ; lores blackish ; ear-coverts brown ; under surface of 
body pale sandy-buff, lighter on the abdomen and under tail- 
coverts ; under wing-coverts and axillaries dusky brown, with 
white edgings. Total length, 5 '8 inches; wing, 3 - 5. 
Young. — -Light chocolate-browm above, mottled all over with 
dusky blackish edgings to the feathers ; the head and neck lighter 
brown, mottled with terminal spots and streaks of sandy-buff; 
lesser and median wing- coverts blackish, spotted with sandy- 
buff at the ends ; the greater coverts and quills broadly edged 
with rufous; rump and upper tail-coverts white; tail-feathers 
tipped with rufous ; ear-coverts dark brown with sandy-buff 
streaks ; under surface of body sandy-buff, lighter on the throat 
and abdomen ; the fore-neck and breast mottled with dusky 
margins to the feathers ; bill light brown, the lower mandible 
and gape yellow. After the autumn moult the young birds re- 
semble the old females, but are more rufous, especially under- 
neath. 
Range in Great Britain. — -A summer visitor, arriving early in 
March, and breeding throughout the British Islands, but much 
less frequently in the southern and midland counties than it 
does in the north. The birds which arrive in March are 
smaller in every way than those which arrive in April, about 
a month later; but the question of the differences between 
these two races and their geographical distribution has never 
been satisfactorily explained. The later arrivals always seem 
to us to be browner, as well as larger, than the first arrivals ; 
and it is this large form which passes through the Shetlands 
and Iceland on migration, and breeds in Greenland. Colonel 
Feilden even noticed it as high as 8o° N. lat. 
Range outside the British Islands. — A nearly circumpolar bird, 
breeding in the high north throughout Europe and Northern 
Asia, but only on the higher ground in Southern Europe. 
The winter home of the Wheatear extends from the North- 
western Himalayas to Persia, and also to North-eastern and 
Eastern Africa, as well as to Senegambia. 
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