24 FRINGILLID.E. 



tile red ; the feathers on the back mixed with some brown, 

 producing a chestnut brown ; wing-coverts, quill, and tail- 

 feathers, nearly uniform dark brown ; tail short, slightly 

 forked ; vent, and under tail-coverts, greyish white ; legs, 

 toes, and claws, dark brown. The central figure of our 

 group represents such a bird. 



A second male bird killed at the same time as the red bird 

 just described, has the head, rump, and under surface of the 

 body, pale yellow, tinged with green ; the back olive brown ; 

 wings and tail-feathers like those of the red bird. 



A third male, killed at the same time, has the top of the 

 head and the back a mixture of reddish brown and dark 

 orange ; the rump reddish orange ; the upper tail-coverts 

 bright orange ; the chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, 

 red, passing, on the lower part of the breast, belly, and sides, 

 to orange. 



Red males that have moulted in confinement have changed 

 during the moult to greenish yellow, and others to bright yel- 

 low ; thus apparently indicating that the yellow colour was 

 that of the older livery ; but young males, as before ob- 

 served, certainly sometimes change at once to yellow, with- 

 out going through either the red or the orange-coloured 

 stage. The brightest colours, Avhether green, yellow, red, 

 or orange, pervade the feathers of the rump, and the upper 

 tail-coverts. 



In captivity I have known several instances of red and 

 yellow coloured specimens changing back to dull brown, as 

 dark, or even darker, than their early plumage. This might 

 be the eifect of particular food, which is known to exercise 

 such an influence on other birds ; but whether having once 

 assumed bright tints, they ever, in a wild and healthy state, 

 go back to olive brown, or more dull colours, has not, I 

 believe, been ascertained. 



Young females, from the striated appearance of their first 



