DUNNOCK. 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, Hsq.,' 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. 
