BULLFINCH. 7 



full colours. In about a year it began to look dingy ; and, 

 blackening every succeeding year, it became coal black at tlie 

 end of four. Its chief food was hempseed : sucli influence 

 has food on the colour of animals."" Morton, in his History 

 of Northamptonshire, as quoted by Pennant, gives another 

 instance of such a change, with this addition, that the year 

 following, after moulting, the bird recovered its natural co- 

 lours. The occurrence of varieties, partially or wholly white, 

 has been recorded in the Magazine of Natural History and 

 in the Naturalist. Professor Nilsson of Lund, in the co- 

 loured illustrations of his Fauna of Scandinavia, has figured a 

 beautifully marked variety of the Bullfinch, which is pure 

 white on the back, wings, and tail ; but the head, and all the 

 under surfiice of the body is of a delicate rose colour. This 

 bird is quoted as the Loxia Jlamengo of Sparrman. 



