mentioned a third is said to have been brought alive from
Moscow to Berlin.
The adult male in full summer-plumage has the hill
greyish-yellow, with the upper mandible brown : the irides
yellowish-brown: the lores, ear-coverts and top of the head
black, with hut a scanty trace of the pale median streak
along the vertex which at other seasons is very conspicuous;
above and behind the eye a stripe of pure white passes
backwards, nearly meeting a white patch on the nape,
which is immediately succeeded by a collar of bright hay
descending on each side so as to encircle the throat; the
back and upper wing-coverts are reddish-brown mottled with
black, the feathers of the former, with the scapulars, being
black near the shaft edged with bright hay and then more or
less broadly bordered with buff; the middle and lower wing-
coverts brownish-black with lighter borders and white tips,
forming two well-marked bars across the wing; quills dark
brown with lighter edges, the two outer tail-quills on each
side having an oblique white patch; rump and upper tail-
coverts bright bay, the feathers bordered with buff; chin
black next to the bill, and, in some specimens, with an interrupted
black line extending downwards on each side from
the lower corner of the mandible, the rest of the chin and
throat white, as is the whole of the lower surface beneath
the hay collar, which sometimes passes into deep brown
on the median line and always forms a more or less
well-defined band across the upper part of the breast; the
sides of the body and flanks broadly streaked with bright
bay: legs and toes flesh-coloured, claws somewhat darker.
In winter the same bird has the feathers generally
broadly bordered with buff, so as almost entirely to conceal
the deeper tints of the plumage, and, in many examples,
even at the breeding-season, these borders not being entirely
shed, especially from the top of the head, give the bird a
very different appearance, but the characteristic colouring
may always be discovered by examining the middle part
of the feathers.
The adult female in summer has the bill yellow: the top
of the head and ear-coverts brown, mottled with dark brown
and buff; the lores, vertical streak, superciliary stripe and
nuchal patch ochreous-white; the bay collar narrower and
duller than in the male, and the warmer tints of the whole
plumage fainter except on the rump, where the hay is as
bright as in the other sex.
The young in autumn greatly resemble those of the JEteed-
Bunting at the samU season^ but the tone of plumage
generally is yellower, the nuchal spot is distinct, and the bay
of the collar, sides of the body and the rump, even when
partly concealed by the ochreous borders of the feathers,
can always be detected.
The nestling plumage resembles that of the old hen in
the breeding-season, but the reddish tints are less bright
above and entirely wanting beneath, while the whole of the
lower parts from the chin to the vent is thickly streaked or
spotted with dull black.
The specimen in full summer-plumage here described is
in the Strickland Collection of the University of Cambridge.
The other examples were kindly lent to the Editor by Mr.
Dresser.