EASTERN PURPLE FINCH 269 



about 8 weeks. In the Lexington, Mass., sample of 343 juvenile 

 birds 26 percent (roughly half the males) showed some ruddy or 

 pinkish tints in the first winter plumage. The available evidence 

 from returns of banded birds is that all such birds are males. This 

 ruddy coloring varies in intensity from a very faint tinting to color 

 approaching that of the adult male. Its area may be very restricted 

 or may extend to practically all the regions that are red or rosy in 

 the fully colored male. 



The first nuptial plumage is acquired by wear, most of the buffy 

 tints being lost and the edgings becoming whitish. The birds breed 

 in this plumage and the males sing. 



The adult wiuter plumage is acquired by a complete postnuptial 

 molt, beginning in July or early August, at which old and young 

 birds become indistinguishable, the males assuming the pink plumage. 

 Dwight (1900) describes the male as follows: "Above, pale 

 geranium-red (often carmine or brick-red), hoary on the pileum and 

 nape, the feathers of the back with dusky shaft lines and broad 

 greenish buff edgings. Below, a hoary geranium-pink blending into 

 white on abdomen and crissum, the flanks buffy with a few dusky 

 streaks. Wings and tail clove-brown the edgings tinged with pale 

 brick-red." 



The adult nuptial plumage is acquired by wear, the hoary effect 

 disappearing and the reds and pinks becoming clearer and brighter. 



C. H. Blake reports that the molts of the female are the same as 

 those of the male and that for 2 years or more she resembles closely 

 the brown first winter plumage. Thereafter, in at least some popula- 

 tions, the female acquires a coloration very like that of the reddened 

 first winter males described above. On the average such old females 

 are a little less extensively reddened than the young males. A very 

 few females develop a general yellowing of the plumage. 



Dwight (1900) remarks: "In captivity pink adults assume golden 

 or bronzed feathers at their first moult, never reassuming the pink 

 dress." 



Several articles have been published by bird banders who have 

 noticed abnormal coloring in portions of the plumages of purple 

 finches. Notable among these is the veteran bird-bander, M. J. 

 Magee, of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., who had banded and examined 

 no less than 6,157 purple finches up to 1927, and as many as 1,168 

 in a single year. As his papers are too long to be quoted here in de- 

 tail, the reader is referred to his titles in the Literature Cited under 

 Magee (1924 and 1927). 



Charles L. Whittle (1928) and Helen G. Whittle (1928) have noted 

 such abnormal coloring in banded piu-ple finches. The former 

 writes: "Bufiiness and bright yellow olive are common on the upper 



