“ When- the young quit the nest they still keep their parents company, wandering about the
edges of the woods and open localities, appearing in the morning and evening on their feeding-
grounds, retiring to the thickets at noon and at nightfall. Their food now is principally insects ; but
in July, when the wild strawberries are ripe, these constitute their principal fare. This regular mode of
life continues throughout this month until the latter end, when the moulting-season commences. By
the end of August the moult is over, and the birds begin to flock, and then their regular nomad life
commences. They frequent all the large woods, and draw near to those districts where the rowan
tree and the wild rose abound, on the berries of which they live for the most part, until the autumn
sends them southwards to their winter haunts.”
Adult male in winter plumage. General colour above dark chocolate-brown, verging on chestnut,
the feathers of the mantle showing obscure black centres; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts
ashy grey; the wing-coverts like the back, with faint ashy margins to the median and greater series;
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, the primaries externally edged with brown, the
outer ones fringed with grey, the secondaries externally chocolate-brown like the back, the innermost
black on the inner web, brown on the outer one, with ashy ends to the feathers; tail-feathers black;
crown of head and hind-neck ashy-grey, the crown slightly streaked with blackish centres to the
feathers; nasal plumes, lores, and feathers below the eye black; ear-coverts ashy-grey, as also the
sides of the neck; cheeks and under surface of body rich mahogany-buff, the cheeks and throat
narrowly streaked with black, these streaks becoming a little broader on the fore-neck and chest, the
feathers on the side of the breast and chest being black with tawny edgings, which become greyish
white on the flank-feathers; lower flanks ashy-grey like the rump; centre of abdomen and under
tail-coverts pure white, the latter streaked laterally with ashy-blackish; thighs whitish, mottled with
blackish bases to the feathers; axillaries and under wing-coverts pure white, some of the former
with narrow black shaft-lines; quill-lining ashy-grey: bill yellowish, horn-brown at tip ; feet reddish
brown, the toes darker; iris hazel. Total length 10 inches, culmen 0*9, wing 5*7, tail 3’8,
tarsus 1*2.
The bird described is a very fine old male shot by myself at Cookham in the severe winter of
1874, and there is very little difference between it and a male in the fullest breeding-plumage. In
fact the winter plumage of a perfectly adult bird is finer in colour than that of any breeding
specimen, as the feathers soon get abraded during the nesting-season. The older birds are
distinguished by the greater amount of rufous on the throat and breast, younger birds having the
centre of the breast white, as well as the abdomen. Considerable change takes place in the pattern
of the feathers as the full plumage is gained, the black streaks on the throat and chest widening
gradually and becoming spear-shaped, the dark colour of the flank-feathers being also apparently
gradually assumed, the black sub-terminal bars following the outline of the feather and the basal
part being by degrees filled up, sometimes, it would seem, with rufous, which ultimately becomes
black, and in this way the dark appearance of the sides of the body is produced, the last remains of
the light centre to the feathers surviving as a white shaft-streak.
Adult female. Scarcely differs from the male, but is, as a rule, not so highly coloured below.
Total length 10 inches, wing 5*5. -
The young birds reproduce the colour of the adults, but have the back and scapulars
mesially streaked with a line of whitish down the centre of the feathers, this white line bordered
and tipped with blackish; the mesial streaks on the lesser and median coverts yellowish buff
instead of white; the greater series with ashy-brown margins, whitish towards the ends; the
head and neck browner than in the adults, as also the ear-coverts, which have whitish shaft-
lines ; lower back and rump ashy grey, with hoary-grey margins to the feathers; the upper tail-
coverts dark slaty-grey with white shaft-streaks and fringes, the latter preceded by a sub-terminal
line of blackish; throat and breast yellowish buff, with triangular spots of black, wider and not so
longitudinal as in the old birds; the breast and abdomen dull white, spotted all over with dusky
blackish tips to the feathers; on each side of the upper breast a black patch. After the first
moult the young birds are brpwner than the adults, and the following is the description I made in
1871 of a bird from Tangier, which was figured in Sharpe and Dresser’s ‘Birds of Europe ’ (part ix.),
and the exact counterpart of which I have never seen since:—
“ Young male in first, winter plumage. Upper surface of body dull brown, inclining to chestnut
in the centre of the back; the nape and rump greyish, this shade of colour also extending to the
upper tail-coverts, which are slightly shaded with brown. On being held towards the light a slight
ashy edging to most of the back-feathers may be perceived. The wing-coverts are also dull
chestnut-brown, with obsolete greyish margins; the quills and tail dull brown, with narrow whitish
edgings and tips, the secondaries being almost entirely of a dull chestnut-brown, like the back and
scapulars, the tail also slightly washed with brown; lores and a narrow eyebrow golden buff; the
feathers in front and under the eye blackish; ear-coverts dull greyish, tinged with brown; cheeks,
throat, breast, and flanks rich golden buff, mottled with black, the two former marked with little
triangular dots, which do not collect or form a moustachial streak, but extend high up the throat,
the intermediate chin being whitish; the sides of the breast and flanks more thickly mottled with
blackish, whicli has on the latter a strong chestnut shade; the whole of the lower breast and belly
snowy white, the under tail-coverts slightly washed with brown; the under wing-coverts and feathers
on the sides of the upper breast pure white : bill horn-brown, the whole of the base of the lower
mandible yellowish; feet fleshy brown, the toes darker.
“ In the following spring, when the bird takes his adult dress, no moult takes place, but the
dull edgings to the feathers are cast off and the head and rump become blue-grey, this colour also
pervading the edges of the quills; the brown triangular spots on the breast gradually dilate and
widen out till they occupy the whole centre of the feather; the golden tinge on the breast is not
so bright, and the flanks are strongly-tinged with chestnut, while the black markings on them
grow more pronounced and zigzag in shape; the bill becomes bright waxy yellow, and the feet
simultaneously dark fleshy brown, the toes being exactly the same colour. These changes are
exhibited in a specimen in Mr. Howard Saunders’s collection, shot by Dr. Kriiper in Macedonia
on the 3rd of March, 1870.”
The figure of the adult bird is taken from a male killed in Heligoland in March 1878, and the
young female from a Krasnoyarsk specimen taken in July, both being in the Seebohm Collection.
[R. B. S.]