Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 8 of 9.djvu/42

 the underside of the tail grey. The lesser under wing-coverts are white, barred with brown at the end, and the axillaries white, washed with light ochre and indistinctly barred. The bill is horn brown, the base of the lower mandible being yellowish flesh colour, and the iris bright yellow. Feet are light greyish brown with pale flesh-coloured soles.

Adult Female in Spring.—The general colour of the upper parts is very similar to that which we find in the male, but rather more brownish, the ash colour on the crown, rump, and upper tail-coverts being scarcely conspicuous. The under parts are almost white, slightly washed with light ochre, and with a suggestion of the barred pattern found in the male. The abdomen is pure white.

Immature.—The general colour is lighter and greyer than that of the adult in spring, with but a trace of the pattern. The underparts are white, washed with light rusty grey on the upper breast and flanks, the barred pattern being occasionally suggested. Iris is sulphur yellow. Feet lead colour with yellowish soles.

From time to time a number of examples of this species have been met with in Great Britain and Ireland, the records coming from Kent, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire. Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, Anglesey, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Skye, Argyll, the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, Fair Isle and St. Kilda, and in Ireland from Belmullet and Rockabill Light.

To the western parts of Europe the bird is a scarce visitor, but in Germany, though local and, rarer in the west, it is, nevertheless, generally distributed, and especially common in the eastern provinces, and northwards is found breeding in Denmark and the southern parts of Sweden. In the northern provinces of Italy it is found in suitable localities, but is of rare occurrence in the central and