664 Mr. C. B. Ticeliurst on the 



thougli it appears that young males as a rule are yellow-red; 

 yet in those individuals which still carry a trace of the 

 striped feathers o£ youth over the winter, the colour is 

 always yellowish. Those individuals^ which do not seem to 

 be sexually mature by the beginning o£ the breeding season, 

 are seldom found in the breeding quarters, but probably keep 

 apart in flocks ; perhaps these individuals only reach sexual 

 maturity later in the summer, and the abnormal simimer 

 and autumn breeding which now and then takes place 

 perhaps belongs in part to these. The colour in breeding 

 males is always red." 



The late Prof. Newton in Yarrell ed. iv. p. 200, says that 

 in the juvenile plumage the males may be distinguished, as 

 noted by Blyth, by the striations being considerably more 

 distinct and more vividly contrasted than in the females. 

 By September the young males have lost much of the 

 striped dress and begin to assume the red plumage of 

 maturity : some do this at once, and this seems to be the 

 normal mode, though thsy do not so early develope their 

 most brilliant hues ; otiiers, possibly less vigorous in 

 constitution, have the red feathers mixed with yellow or 

 become dull orange, the effect of red and yellow combined; 

 others put on a yellowish or yellowislHgrccn dress, and these 

 are probably birds in which development is for some cause 

 still further retarded. Absolute proof that this yellowisii- 

 green dress is ultimately replaced by red is wanting, but^ 

 thougli the wearers of it may not unfrequently be found 

 breeding in it, there is good reason to believe that this 

 change takes place. 



With these rather conflicting opinions before me I started 

 to work out the subject de novo, with no preconceived ideas, 

 and I may say that it is only in this way and by the 

 examination of birds in moult that one can arrive at the 

 truth in such questions of obscurity. In order to get some 

 definite basis to work on, the first thing to do was to examine 

 juvenile birds in moult. Of these I was able to get together 

 ft very fair scries, and was able to pick out au invaluable 



