188 FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 



feet, is of a reddish-cinnamon color ; the irides are dark brown. The 

 front and vertex are glossy black ; the remaining part of the head, and 

 all the body, rich lemon-yellow ; the superior and inferior tail coverts 

 are white, as well as the thighs. The wings and tail are black, the 

 small coverts of the wings being yellow externally, and white on the 

 inner side and at tip ; the greater coverts are tipped with white, an 

 arrangement which exhibits two white bands across the wings ; the first 

 and third primaries are equal, hardly shorter than the second, which is 

 the longest, the fourth being nearly as long as the third ; the secondaries 

 are margined with white. The tail is emarginated, the feathers being 

 black, slightly edged with white, and having a large pure white spot on 

 the inner web at tip. 



The female, as is usual in this family of birds, is rather smaller than 

 the male, and is widely different from that sex in the colors of its 

 plumage. The bill and feet are brownish ; the lower mandible is whitish 

 at base : the head has no appearance of black, and, with the neck, the 

 back, and rump, is brownish-olive, the latter part being of a lighter 

 shade than the preceding portions ; the upper tail coverts are greenish- 

 white. The frontlet, cheeks, sides of the neck, throat, and upper part 

 of the breast, are pale greenish-yellow ; the lower portion of the breast, 

 belly, vent, flanks, under wing and under tail coverts, are whitish. The 

 wings and tail, which always afford the most constant specific characters, 

 are like those of the male, except that the black color is less intense, 

 and the white is less pure, being slightly tinged with rufous. 



In this state of plumage, the bird closely resembles the Fringilla 

 eitrinella of the south of Europe, which however can always be distin- 

 guished from it by several characters, but more particularly by its 

 greenish-yellow rump, and by being destitute of the whitish spot at the 

 tip of the inner web of the tail feathers. The young are so like the 

 females as to be distinguished with difficulty ; their colors, however, 

 are still less lively ; they assume the adult livery in the spring, but do 

 not exhibit all the brilliancy of the perfect bird until the third moult. 



The American Goldfinch moults twice a year, in the seasons of 'spring 

 and autumn. At the spring moult the males obtain their vivid coloring, 

 which is lost at the autumnal change, and replaced by a more humble 

 dress, similar to that of the female, from Avhich sex they cannot then be 

 readily distinguished. The black of the wings is, however, somewhat 

 more intense ; the white of the wings and of the tail is dull and dirty, 

 and a yellowish tint prevails around the eyes, as well as on the neck. 

 From this statement it follows, that Wilson's figure represents the adult 

 male in that brilliant dress in which it appears for the space of four or 

 five months only ; whilst the figure in the annexed plate exhibits the 

 invariable colors of the female and young, as well as the appearance of 

 the male for the remaining seven months in the year. 



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