hatched, are clothed with dark sooty down, and are fed, as
would appear from Herr Collett’s observation, chiefly on the
larvae of Tipulidce. Their plumage when they have left the
nest will he presently described, and they accompany their
parents for some time, perhaps until the advancing season
gives all warning to depart for other lands. Then the different
family-parties unite in hands whose numbers are daily
swollen by fresh adherents until they form a mighty host
that with the first frosts of winter takes wing over the
southern seas.
The adult male in breeding-plumage*, of which a good
representation is given by Bewick, has the hill black: the
irides hazel: the head, neck and all the lower parts pure
white, though in some examples the top of the head and the
nape are mottled with black, and there is generally a black
spot visible above and behind the ears. The upper wing-
coverts, except those of the bastard-wing which are black,
and the secondaries white; but the latter are often black
towards the extremity, though their tip seems to he always
white; and in some examples the middle wing-coverts are
also black, bordered with greyish-white, forming a distinct
black bar across the wing; the primaries and tertials are
black, the former however white at the base, and the latter
often bordered outwardly with white; the hack is jet-black,
mottled more or less on the rump with white; the three
inner pairs of tail-quills black, occasionally slightly bordered
or tipped with white, hut the three outer pairs are nearly
white, with a black patch towards the tip : the legs, toes and
claws black.f
The adult female, at the same time, much resembles her
* In this state English specimens are very rare : one was killed in the grounds
of Mr. Wortham, at Royston, May 22nd, 1840, and given by him to the Author
of this work ; a second, “ pretty far advanced,” was shot near Penzance in April,
1864, as recorded by Mr. Rodd (Zool. p. 9109); a third, in “ full summer
plumage,” was obtained, according to Mr. Dutton (Zool. s.s. p. 792), April 14th,
1867, at Eastbourne, and a fourth, in “ full breeding plumage,” at the same
place early in July, 1872, as mentioned by Capt. Kennedy (Zool. s.s. p. 3914).
4* The birds which in breeding-plumage exhibit the black mottling of the
head and the black baron the wings are most likely those in which the white
tip of the feathers is worn off more than in the others.
>
partner, but the white on the head and the rest of the upper
parts is much more mottled with black and dusky, and her
colours are not so pure.
The young, in its first plumage, has the bill yellow, dark at
the tip of the upper mandible, the head, sides of the neck and
the back are of a greyish-olive, variegated towards the rump
with reddish-brown; the white of the wings is also tinged,
and the quills of both wings and tail are bordered with the
same colour; the throat and lower parts are dirty white,
tinged on the throat and belly with pale yellow, and on the
breast and flanks with reddish-brown.
The adult male, on its arrival here towards winter, as
figured at the head of this article, has the bill yellow,
darker at the tip : top of the head and the ear-coverts more
or less covered with deep reddish-brown on a white ground ;
the feathers on the back black at the base, with broad ends
of pale reddish-brown; the wings much as in the summer-
plumage except that the tertials are broadly bordered with
dull chestnut; upper tail-coverts black at the base with
broad ends of pale reddish-brown or, in some examples, of
white, and hardly shewing any of the first colour ; the tail
as in summer; all the lower parts dull white, more or less
tinged with reddish-brown on the breast and flanks. In this
state it has been called the Tawny Bunting; when presenting
less white than the figure here given, it is in the state
called the Mountain-Bunting.
The female at the same time, figured by Bewick as the
Tawny Bunting, has the top of the head dull chestnut-
brown, which becomes paler on the nape; the whole upper
surface mottled with blackish-brown and dull chestnut;
the wings shew but little white except at the tip of the
lesser coverts and the base of the secondaries; the white
of the tail is less bright; the chin and throat are dull
chestnut, becoming deeper in tone across the upper part
of the breast, the rest of the lower surface dull white.
The whole length of the male is about seven inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather,
four inches and a quarter. The females are a little smaller.