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replaced by yellow when in captivity, such as the 

 Redpoll and the Crossbill. A few years ago one of 

 the latter birds came into my possession while in its 

 first feather, and although a male bird and kept in an 

 outdoor aviary, it never even assumed its proper 

 colour, but put on the greenish yellow of the female 

 at its first moult. It soon afterwards unfortunately 

 escaped. 



COLOUR VARIATION IN THE FIREFINCH :— 



Dr. Hopkinson writes to me on May 4 as follows : — 

 " I have got a few rather interesting birds. . . . 

 '* about two dozen of the rarer Firefinches, including 

 '' a colour variety of the Common Firefinch, real 

 "orange colour instead of red. Caught half coloured 

 " in this state, so the tendency to get pale cannot be 

 •' the result of captivity as I always thought. Russ 

 " describes a similar bird he had one specimen of from 

 " Benguela as a distinct species, but I suppose it was 

 ''really only an abnormally feathered individual." 



For certain " reds " in avian colouration to be re- 

 placed by their subsidiary yellows is no uncommon 

 occurrence. In those varieties of fancy pigeons in 

 which yellows and creams are found, and are recog- 

 nized as standard colours, it is a matter of frequent 

 procedure to breed yellows and reds together, for the 

 purpose of keeping up the depth of the yellow. And 

 all through these varieties the yellow subvarieties 

 appear to have been the last established, and to be the 

 easiest to lose. 



GREY AND GREEN SINGING FINCH HY- 

 BRIDS :— In Mr. Dart's aviary are to be seen three 

 specimens of this hybrid flying about in their first 



