92 
SPARROW. 
the males assume their adult plumage, hut it is not till the 
next year that it is perfected. In the second season, the male 
has the bill greyish yellow or horn-colour above, and below 
with a faint tinge of red, the tip brown; from its base a 
broad band of obscure black runs down the front of the 
neck; in front of the eye the colour is blackish grey, and 
over it is a line of yellowish grey mixed with chesnut brown, 
extending down the neck. Head on the crown, brownish 
grey; the neck on the sides has some of the feathers with 
chesnut tips; in front it is light yellowish grey. Breast, 
light yellowish grey above, fading beneath into dull white; 
the back is light yellowish brown above, the inner webs of the 
feathers being brownish black at the tip, lower down it is 
light greenish dull grey. Greater wing coverts dusky, mar¬ 
gined exteriorly with yellowish brown; lesser wing coverts, 
light brown, with a little pale yellowish brown or chesnut 
near the tips, and margined more broadly with yellowish 
brown; primaries, dusky, margined exteriorly with yellowish 
brown. Upper tail coverts, light greenish dull grey; under 
tail coverts, light yellowish grey; legs and toes, greyish 
yellow or horn-colour. 
Variations of plumage in the Sparrow are not unfrequent. 
Thus, in one, the primaries and fail were white; another, shot 
by myself many years ago, in the parish of Taxal, Cheshire, 
near Chapel-on-le-Prith, Derbyshire, had some white feathers 
in the wings, and a few elsewhere. Another, a hen bird, was 
shot near Ipswich, Suffolk, of a dull white colour below, and 
a light cream-colour above; and another in the Butter Market 
in the same town, in October, 1850, with a dull white head. 
Specimens of an unvaried blackish brown are sometimes met 
with; some pure white; some cream-coloured. One white one 
had the red eyes which are generally seen in albinos; and 
the late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, has recorded one in which 
the upper bill was nearly two inches long, and slightly 
twisted to one side, turning down also like that of the 
Curlew. 
The plate is from a capital drawing by my friend the Bev. 
B. P. Alington, Bector of Swinhope, Lincolnshire. 
