234 Mr. W. E. Brooks^s Ornithological 



XXVI. — A few Ornithological Notes and Corrections. 

 By W. Edwin Brooks. 



In the ' Natural History Transactions of Northumberland 

 and Durham/ vol. vi. page 53^ my friend John Hancock 

 says, ^^When the Brown Linnet is kept in confinement it 

 loses the red on the breast on the first moult, and never 

 afterwards regains it, but continues in the plumage of the 

 Grey Linnet. The fact is, that the males, after shedding 

 the nest-feathers, get a red breast, which they retain only 

 during the first season ; they then assume the garb of the 

 female, which is retained for the rest of their lives, as in the 

 case of the Crossbill .^^ 



In this observation Mr. Hancock is quite correct, but the 

 rule applies to other groups besides the Linnets. The 

 majority ^of old males of Pinicola enucleator, for instance, 

 are found in the yellow female plumage ; but I shot one 

 which was of a pale pinkish orange, or light salmon-colour : 

 this was so badly mangled that I did not preserve it. I also 

 saw a second one of the same colour. Whether this interme- 

 diate plumage is general, or only occasional, I cannot say. 



During the winter of 1882-83 I procured a large series of 

 Linota linaria (Mealy Redpole) . Of about forty males, only 

 half a dozen were in the red plumage, and the finest and 

 largest males were in the grey female plumage, merely 

 having the bright red on the crown of the head. Some of 

 them had a few little brownish-red, or rather reddish-brown 

 specks on the cheeks. What age they -were, compared with 

 those absolutely like the females, I cannot say. Tlie females 

 varied a little, some, instead of having the top of the head 

 deep crimson, had it dull rusty brown : whether this indicates 

 great age or the reverse I do not know ; 1 should think the 

 former. 



The Carpodacus group have the mature male plumage plain 

 brown, like that of the female. I do not know how many 

 brown males of C. erythrinus I shot in India up to pretty 

 late in the spring. All these I then labelled as ''young ^ ." 

 Since I came to Canada I have had opportunities of observing 



