210 ON THE VARIETIES OF ANIMALS. 



surrounding the lower part of the back of the neck. Likewise, another Partridge, 

 a very curious bird, with the whole of the neck and chin of a pale buff colour, 

 and the rest of the plumage of rather a lighter shade than usual. A third has 

 many clear white feathers on the shoulders, neck, breast, head, and on part of 

 the wings ; the rest of the plumage of the ordinary colour. 



Blackbirds seem very subject to variation of plumage, and particularly, I 

 think, on the head or neck. In Mr. Reid's museum is one with the head white, 

 and also the neck faintly divided by a black band, the black interspersed with 

 white feathers, and one or two more on the shoulder ; also another with the nape 

 of the neck white, and shading off with the same colour towards the head. I 

 have heard of a specimen entirely white. Mr. Reid informs me of a white 

 Bunting*, with only one or two drab-coloured feathers on the wing. Also of 

 white and cream-coloured Rats, which latter I have seen. White Mice are far 

 from uncommon. Canaries [after long confinement, and especially if bred in that 

 state. — Ed.] vary much in plumage. I have seen one with brown plumage on 

 the nape of the neck, cheeks, and part of the back, and a bar of the same colour 

 across the breast. White Bullfinchest have been seen, and also black ones. 

 The latter, I believe, in consequence of their having been fed £too profusely] on 

 Hemp seed. 



In The Naturalist for December, 1836 (Vol. I. p. 224), mention is made by 

 Mr. Neville Wood of a white Jackdaw, and by Mr. Blyth " of a female Whin 

 Linnet one third white" ; also, by Mr. Wood, of " a Rook, shot by the keeper 

 to John Silvester, Esq., of the Grove, near Ashbourn, the head, feet, and bill 

 of which are nearly white, and the primary feathers of the wing are perfectly 

 white." I have read somewhere of a white Wren. £Wc have seen a Wren with 

 the crown of the head white. — Ed.] In addition to the pied Sparrow in my pos- 

 session, noticed above, I have just seen another very similar (they are both fe- 

 males, and I think in this species, the varieties more frequently occur in the fe- 

 male sex than in the male.). It has eight white feathers in each wing, but no 

 other white markings, having the rest of the plumage of the ordinary colour ; the 

 two white feathers nearest to the pinion (in one wing only one feather from it ; 

 in the other eight) are separated by one of the usual colour, and in the right 

 wing a second brown feather intermediate between two other of the white ones, 



* We once noticed a Yellow Bunting in Bagofs Park, Staffordshire, with a white head. This 

 species is, in our opinion, not so much subject to variety in plumage as represented by some 

 writers ; and we are inclined to attribute the difference observable in the intensity and extent of 

 the yellow to age, sex, or season, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. — Ed. 



f The only individual of this species, of which we have heard, with the bill, claws, and the 

 whole plumage perfectly white, is now in our possession. It was shot near Foston Hall, Derby- 

 shire, after a chace of about half-an-hour.— Ed. 



