J Ca Dwight, Variations of the American Goldfinch. \^^ 



yellow and sometimes not. Above, the plumage, although much 

 darker, resembles the juvenal, while below it is much paler than 

 the juvenal, the abdomen and crissum being dull white, the 

 breast a brownish olive-gray and the sides and flanks strongly 

 washed with wood-brown, while the yellow of the throat is brighter 

 and more extended. Some specimens, however, are everywhere 

 suffused with yellow, which extends further on the breast, and are 

 hardly to be distinguished from adults, except by the lesser coverts, 

 which are dull black with olive-yellow or greenish edgings. In 

 adults these coverts are chiefly canary-yellow. 



The browns and buffs fade so rapidly that in a few months the 

 upper surface usually changes from a deep sepia to a pale hair- 

 brown, the unprotected wing-edgings bleach nearly to white, and 

 the wash on the sides becomes scarcely perceptible. The wing- 

 edgings pale earlier than the back or sides where the feathers are 

 newer, usually becoming white, often by the end of January, while 

 the brown of the back does not become decidedly grayish until 

 April. A few resistant April birds are found, however, that are 

 almost as brown as November specimens, and birds taken on the 

 same day during the winter months will vary widely in tone, owing 

 no doubt both to the different periods at which their plumages were 

 assumed and to individual variation in original color and in resist- 

 ance to exposure. 



This plumage is worn for about five or six months, and although 

 the beginning of the prenuptial moult is seen sometimes as early 

 as the end of January, it is usually the end of March or beginning 

 of April before the feather-tracts show much activity. The gradual 

 creeping in of new feathers is perhaps most conspicuous on the 

 head, but it occurs at all of the customary points of outbreak 

 as outlined in my earlier papers on moult. 



In the female of iristis a partial postjuvenal moult takes place, 

 as in the male, from which the female is distinguishable chiefly by 

 the retained dull wings and tail of the juvenal dress. The yellow 

 of the new feathers on the chin is duller than in the male and 

 restricted to a smaller area, less often suffusing the head or 

 adjacent parts. The browns are a trifle duller. The lesser wing- 

 coverts often remain brown or assume only a faint greenish tinge. 

 Otherwise females resemble males during the winter, their pre- 



