13 



brownish above, below yellowish, the corners of the mouth 

 red; over the eye is a pale yellowish grey streak; the eye is 

 at first dusky, and afterwards dark red; the crown of the 

 head is deep yellowish grey; the throat and breast are dusky 

 greyish or yellowish white, marked with small oval spots of 

 a darker shade; on the sides, which are rusty yellowish, each 

 feather greyish yellow towards the shafts. The upper parts 

 confusedly mottled with dusky and light brownish red, the 

 tips of the feathers being of the latter colour; the greater 

 and lesser wing coverts tipped with rusty yellow; the secondary 

 coverts tipped with dull white. The tail brown, the feathers 

 with light reddish margins: the under tail coverts rusty 

 yellowish with black shaft streaks; the feet light brownish 

 red. The moult takes place in July or August. 



The colours fade with the advance of summer, the reddish 

 brown edges of the feathers become narrower, and the grey 

 of the breast paler. 



White varieties are sometimes met with. The Rev. Dr. 

 Thackeray, of King's College, Cambridge, obtained one which 

 had the head, neck, body, and wing coverts, dull white, varied 

 with a few markings of the natural colour; the wings and 

 tail pure white, the bill and legs pale reddish. The Rev. 

 Robert Holdsworth, of Brixham, had another which was of 

 a nearly uniform reddish buff colour. The late William 

 Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, mentions one obtained near 

 Clonmel, in February, 1838, the plumage of which was entirely 

 of a cream-colour of one shade, and the under plumage of a 

 paler hue. One was seen at Weston-super-Mare, Somersetshire, 

 in 1851, which had the wings and tail white, and the back 

 and breast mottled with brown. A nest of piebald ones was 

 reared in the same neighbourhood a few years previous. One 

 near Lewes, Sussex, in 1849, which was entirely white, with 

 the exception of a red patch or two on the wing. 



