oe REDPREAST. 
sometimes formed. Some are entirely white. N. Rowe, Esq., 
of Worcester College, Oxford, has written me word of five 
egos found in the elegant gardens of that, my own, college, 
whose ‘classic shades’ I so well remember, and which were 
quite white and spotless. He also tells me since of a nest 
and eggs taken near Exeter on New Year’s day, 1853. My 
friend EK. C. Taylor, Esq., of Kirkham Abbey, Yorkshire, has 
forwarded me one of the like colour, found in a nest in that 
beautiful neighbourhood, my own, as I may call it, through 
the tie of property and former residence. 
Male; length, five inches and nearly three quarters; bill, 
brownish black; the red of the breast reaches over its base; 
iris, black, large, and lustrous; the red of the breast narrowly 
surrounds it. Head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, 
yellowish olive brown; chin, throat, and breast on the upper 
part, orange red, bordered with bluish grey; on the lower - 
part the latter is white, and pale brown on the sides; back, 
yellowish olive brown. The wings, which expand to a trifle 
over nine inches, have the first feather about half the length 
of the second, the third, fourth, and fifth nearly equal, but 
the fourth the longest in the wing, the fifth scarcely shorter, 
the sixth a little longer than the second; underneath they 
are dusky grey: greater and lesser wing coverts, some of them 
tipped with buff; primaries and secondaries, greyish brown, 
their outer edges olive green; greater and lesser under wing 
coverts, tinged with yellow. Tail, yellowish olive brown with 
a tinge also of green, their outer edges, especially at the 
base, reddish brown, and obliquely pointed; underneath, it is 
dusky grey: the feathers are narrow. Upper tail coverts, 
yellowish olive brown; under tail coverts, pale brown; legs, 
toes, and claws, yellowish brown. As the plumage becomes 
old the olive green of the upper parts become tinged with 
grey, the wings and tail are faded, and the red of the neck 
and breast is paler or more yellowish. 
The female is scarcely so large as the male, and her colours 
not so bright; length, five inches and a half; eyelids, black, 
as in the male; expanse of the wings, nine inches. 
The young bird differs totally in colour from the adult. At 
first it 1s sparingly covered with loose down of a greyish 
brown colour. When fully fledge’, the upper bill is hght 
purple brown, the edges yellow, the lower bill yellowish on 
its sides and the chief part of the remainder, and dark brown 
at the end. The head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, 
