6G WHEATEAR. 
a broader band of brown under it. Forehead, brown, tinged 
with red in the autumn; head, crown, neck on the back, and 
nape, light reddish brown, intermixed with grey; chin, throat, 
and breast above, light reddish brown, the remainder pale 
greyish brown, and cream-colour in the autumn; back above, 
light reddish brown, intermixed with grey; below, dull white. 
The wings extend to the width of eleven inches and a 
quarter; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, blackish brown, 
edged with dull reddish brown; greater and lesser under wing 
coverts, blackish brown, broadly edged with brownish white. 
Tail, dark blackish brown, the imner part of the feathers 
white at the base in a graduated manner, excepting the two 
middle ones, of which the shaft only is white at the base, 
and a small portion of the downy part of these feathers; 
upper tail coverts, dull white. Legs, toes, and claws, brownish 
black. 
The young, when nearly fledged, have the streak over the 
eye rufous, and the line through it is imperfect; the dark 
band on the side of the head is wanting. Head, crown, and 
neck on the back, light greyish brown, the central part of 
each feather on the head paler; back, in the male, on the 
lower part, white, but most of the feathers tipped with brown 
in the females. Greater wing coverts, deep brown, broadly 
margined and tipped with brownish red; lesser wing coverts, 
dusky, with greyish yellow margins, Tail, deep brown, the 
feathers white at the base, and broadly margined and tipped 
with brownish red. 
After the first autumnal moult the young birds assume the 
adult plumage, but the colours are more tinged with brown. 
These birds vary considerably in size, and also, according 
to age, in colour; the grey of the back and the white of the 
breast being more pure, and the black and brown being 
deeper in old birds; the wearing of the edges of the feathers 
in the summer also produces a change. 
Both young and old birds moult before leaving the country. 
J. H. Gurney, Esq., of Easton, near Norwich, records in 
the ‘Zoologist,’ page 2923, a curious variety of this bird killed 
at “Thetford, m July, 1850. It was a female. The wings 
were white, excepting a few feathers on the shoulder, and two 
or three adjoining the primaries on the centre of each wing, 
which were of a pale buff. The rest of the plumage was 
the same as usual, but all lighter in colour. 
Another singular variety of this bird was shot at Spetchley, 
