93



on the Breeding of the Painted Finch.


shades were darker about the crown, lighter about the cheeks,

and inclined to red about the centre of the back. Upper tail-

coverts (and lower back ?) brown-black boldly tipped with bright

scarlet; tail above brown-black, each feather strongly but

irregularly stained—almost veined—with red about the centre

but not extending to the edges ; under surface of tail dull black.

Wings above brown, with some of the coverts washed with pink ;

under aspect of half-open wing light, with entire centre pale pink ;

this latter effect (not observable in an adult female I examined)

was produced by the inner webs of the primaries and secondaries

being in part pink ; in the centre of the wing this colour extend¬

ed upwards and downwards nearly but not quite to the tip and

base of the feather, but became more and more restricted, up¬

wards and downwards, on each feather as either extremity of the

wing was approached, the first two or three primaries and the

innermost secondaries being scarcely touched. The breast, when

viewed during life, had what looked like an ill-defined smudge of

sooty black right down the centre ; after death this seemed to be

more definitely black, and in the centre were a very few black

feathers unmistakably if but slightly tipped with bright red.

No spots were visible : daily, on some days two or three times, I

looked for the spots which are so conspicuous on the adults but

failed to detect them ; none could be traced on the dead body,

but this was but negative evidence, the plumage being in such a

bad condition. The rather thick but comparatively short beak

was black, with a sharply cut dirty-white patch on each side of

the lower mandible towards the base; feet and claws darkish but

not black : eyes, no trace-- but probably dark as they could not

be seen during life, and in the nest they had not attracted

attention.


I take it that this fledgeling was a male, and think it pro¬

bable that the patch at the base of the lower mandible ( Adult

male “ . . . . under mandible scarlet, with a triangular patch of

livid blue at the base.” Br. Phis. Cat. XIII., p. 296), and possibly

also the scarlet tipped feathers on the breast, may be sexual

distinctions which are observable at an early age.


October 18.—The second nest in the thuja has been a

failure; and although there is another nest going, it is unlikely



