342 TEN YEAKS IN SWEDEN. 



autumnal moult. I do not think longer,, but though I cannot 

 speak positively, this I can prove, that (although it is the 

 common dress of the female at all ages) it is only interme- 

 diate, and assumed by the male before he comes to his red 

 dress ; for on August 4, 1 shot three specimens of these young 

 ash-green males in deep moult, and the new red feathers 

 were shooting out under the ash-green feathers all over 

 the body, and most probably by the winter these birds 

 would have been deep red. However, I do not think that 

 all assume the rich full red dress at once, for I have shot 

 male birds with a deep purple tinge on the red, very diffe- 

 rent from the fine carmine red which we have all supposed 

 to be the mature dress of the male pine grosbeak. 



Now I am not aware that a single naturalist besides 

 myself has ever noticed this intermediate dress in the male 

 pine grosbeak. In fact, very few have ever had the oppor- 

 tunity of studying these birds in the breeding season. 



There is still another change of plumage in the male 

 pine grosbeak, as well as in the parrot crossbill (and I 

 have no doubt also in the common crossbill), which, as it 

 has only been observed in confinement, our naturalists will 

 not consider normal. I allude to a bright green yellow 

 dress which is assumed by the male bird at a very advanced 

 period of life. It is undoubtedly very rare, and I never 

 saw it but once, and that was in confinement, but I have 

 killed the old parrot crossbill from the nest in this dress, 

 and as it was certainly not the result of confinement in 

 this case, why should we not find the grosbeak with the 

 same dress in a state of nature. I will admit that it 

 is very rare, like the true grey plumage in the old gos- 

 hawk, and perhaps in a state of nature, is found only in 

 the very old males, although strange to say, in confinement 

 it is assumed directly. 



The nest of the grosbeak is one of the neatest I ever 

 saw. Neither large nor deep, but very compactly and 

 cleanly built, like basket work ; the outside walls of very 

 fine fir branches and thin cranberry fibres tightly interlaced, 

 lined with fine stiff grass and a little hair. Placed usually 



