THE GOLDFINCH. 231 



yellow bills respectively. In confinement the legs of goldfinches 

 become of a flesh-coloured tint, in lieu of the dark grey of the wild 

 " black-legged " finch. 



As to abnormities, if we put aside a " blue " goldfinch netted at 

 Shoreham a few years back as identical with an escaped indigo finch, 

 there remains for discussion yellow, crimson, black, and white phases of 

 irregular coloration. 



The only yellow variety that I have seen was netted by Bryans, 

 the Hinksey birdcatcher, in 1877. Though a bird of the year, its 

 under parts were decidedly tinged with yellow. After keeping it for 

 some time, I gave it to a friend in Herts, in whose possession it unluckily 

 died next year. 



Of crimson varieties, the most distinct is that of a band of crimson 

 crossing the nape of the neck in the white crescent that bands the black. 

 The first of this variety shown to me was a large house-moulted Ger- 

 man ; another, sold to me in Oxford by a hawker, possessed the same 

 character, and enjoyed the fly of my rooms in college daily, until the 

 carelessness of a scout drove him in fright through an open door. Of 

 black goldfinches, several stuffed examples are to be seen in the 

 Edinburgh Museum. One, pure black, was netted by Landsprey, near 

 Oxford, about 1860. Mr. Etable, the dealer in gold-crested reguli, &c, 

 of Mortimer Street, Oxford Street, tells me that he lately possessed 

 another entirely black goldfinch, reared from the nest as such. The 

 last melanoid I have seen had an entirely black head, with the 

 exception of a few crimson feathers, but not apparently from a diet of 

 hemp, so productive of melanism in the bullfinch. Last and more 

 important than the foregoing varieties, are those of albinism. The 

 scarcity of pure albinos in the goldfinch, as compared with the linnet, 

 Ac, is partly due to the dislike of goldfinches for abnormally coloured 

 mates, as exemplified by their preference for brown or green canary 

 mates in confinement, to those of a pure light colour. A Garsington 

 birdcatcher netted the only pied greypate or nestling goldfinch that I 

 have as yet heard of. During last summer, two goldfinches were 

 offered to me for sale with white heads. One was an imported Ger- 

 man. But the form of albinism on which I wish especially to say a 

 few words, is that of the "cheverel," "chivel," "cheviot," or "chibald" 

 finch, the names of which are derived, either from the supposed strong- 

 hold of the variety in the Cheviot Hills, or from the A. S. " chefle " to 

 chatter, adopted by Professors Newton and Skeate. The white in the 

 crimson flourish, beneath the lower mandible, varies in size from the 

 mere "speck" of the pea-throated or bastard " chevil," to the broad 

 white throat, " cleancut," figured in Rowley's " Ornithological Miscel- 

 lanies." The addition of a clear white chest and white cervical ring is 

 necessary to the perfection of a "hobby cheverel." It is hardly 

 necessary to point out that the merits of this variety, as regards mule 

 breeding, are not superior to those of the common finch, any more 

 than the "three by sixes"; in which six, instead of four, of th 

 lateral tail feathers are stamped with white. 



