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FIELDFARE. 
on the upper part, fine dark chesnut brown, on the lower 
part shaded into bluish grey, conspicuous in flight, whence 
some of the vernacular names of the species. 
The wings, when closed, reach to about the middle of the 
tail; they expand to the width of one foot five inches and a 
quarter to one foot six; greater wing coverts, brownish red, 
edged with a paler shade of grey; lesser wing coverts, brownish 
red; primaries, greyish black, margined and tipped with pale 
grey; the first quill feather is extremely small and narrow, 
the third the longest, the fourth the next, and scarcely longer 
than the second, which is a little longer than the fifth; the 
shafts are black; underneath, these feathers are dark slate 
grey; secondaries, greyish black, the greater part of the outer 
webs paler brown; greater and lesser under wing coverts, 
white, plainly shewing when the bird is on the wing. The 
tail, which is of a deep greyish black, the side feathers 
greyish towards the end, is long and nearly even, the feathers 
narrow; underneath, it is dark slate grey; upper tail coverts, 
ash grey; under tail coverts, white, marked on either side 
with dusky blots. Legs and toes, dusky brown; claws, blackish 
brown. 
The female closely resembles the male, but is scarcely so 
large, and rather slighter in shape. Length, ten inches and 
a half; the bill is darker; the head is more tinged with 
brown; the throat is paler; the back is less clear in colour, 
and its lower part is yellowish grey. The wings expand to the 
width of one foot four inches and a half. The legs and toes are 
paler than in the male bird. 
The young, after the autumn, nearly resemble their parents, 
but the head is of a less pure blue grey, and the dusky 
streaks on the crown are larger; the neck in front, and the 
throat and breast on the upper part, are of a brighter 
yellowish red, and the sides have the spotted feathers with a 
patch of white inside the brown mark between it and the 
light-coloured border. The back, on its lower part, is of a 
duller blue grey; the greater and lesser under wing coverts 
also are frequently marked with dusky. 
Slight differences as to size and colouring are sometimes 
observable in this species, and white individuals have occasion¬ 
ally been met with. The Revs. Andrew and Henry Matthews, 
in their ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Oxfordshire and its 
Neighbourhood,’ published in the ‘Zoologist,’ mention one 
they possess in which the head and neck are pure white. Mr. 
