4L0 FKINGILLID.E. 



throat, and breast crimson, becoming paler and more rosy on the 

 breast ; lower breast and abdomen white ; sides of body and flanks 

 pale crimson, the latter more or less ashy and broadly streaked with 

 dusky brown ; thighs ashy brown ; under tail-coverts white, tinged 

 with rose-colour ; under wing-coverts and axillaries whitish, washed 

 with rosy ; quills below dusky, ashy along the inner edge. Total 

 length 6 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 3-35, tail 2-2, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult female. Different from the male. General colour above 

 brown, streaked with darker brown centres to the feathers, which 

 have mostly whitish margins, especially on the mantle and upper 

 back ; lesser wing-coverts brown ; median and greater coverts dark 

 brown, edged with lighter brown and margined with whitish at the 

 ends ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills dark brown, edged 

 with lighter brown, the quills with whity brown ; upper tail-coverts 

 brown ; tail-i'eathers brown, margined with ashy whitish ; crown of 

 head like the back and similarly streaked ; lores whitish ; sides of 

 face brown, with a narrow white eyebrow above the ear-coverts ; 

 ear-coverts whiter in the centre ; cheeks and under surface of body 

 white spotted with brown, the spots larger and more triangular on 

 the fore neck and breast, more longitudinal on the sides of the 

 body and flanks ; abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts white ; 

 under wiug-coverts and axillaries ashy whitish, the former some- 

 what isabelline ; quills below dusky, ashy whitish along the inner 

 edge. Total length 5*3 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 3*1, tail 2-1, 

 tarsus 07. 



Male in first breeding-plumage (brown stage). Resembles the old 

 female, but is washed with olive-yellow on the head and rump ; the 

 white edges to the wing-coverts tinged with olive-yellow ; throat 

 entirely unspotted and washed with saffron-yellow, which colour 

 extends over the breast, the brown spots of which are smaller and 

 less plentiful than in the adult female. 



The younq male after the first moult is everywhere browner than 

 the adult female, which it otherwise resembles ; the rump is lighter 

 and more tawny, but has no yellow. The whole tone of the plumage 

 is more ruddy, and the under surface is tinged with clear browu, and 

 the spots are as plentiful as in the adult female. 



For the above interesting stages of plumage tho Museum is in- 

 debted to Dr. Hart Merriam. There can be no doubt that males 

 breed in a brown plumage, which is that of the first year, and there 

 is no necessity for the theory that the red plumage is the first full 

 plumage of the young bird, being afterwards lost. The examination 

 of a series of this and other species of Rose-Finches tends to prove 

 that the red colour gains in intensity with age. 



Specimens from California do not seem to be sufficiently distinct 

 from C. purpureus to warrant their separation. A male from British 

 Columbia is rather more uniform above, with the dusky centres of 

 the dorsal plumage less pronounced ; the sides of the crown are like 

 the head, so that there is no perceptible superciliary streak. Total 

 length 5-3 inches, culmen 0-5, wing 3-15, tail 2-1, tarsus 0-7. 



Between this uniformly coloured bird and ordinary C. purpureus 



