THE FINCHES 127 



distinct from pityopsittacus, but those of the much gloomier Norway 

 spruce, whose distribution the bird follows, 1 and which is the pre- 

 dominant tree in its native forests. I, at least, have never seen this 

 tree looking at all the colour of the adult male crossbill, but always 

 dark, sad, and gloomy, though beautiful. 4. That conclusions as to 

 adaptation to surroundings, based on the observations of a highly 

 characteristic species out of its characteristic home, are liable to be 

 untrustworthy. 5. That if the assimilation, here supposed, of the 

 bird's colouring to the " red-brown " shoots and " russet " bark of the 

 pine really exist, then the male crossbill is not, after all, a much 

 more brilliant species than the hare or red deer ; nor, indeed, if his 

 plumage has become what it is through successive slight accentuations 

 of vividness, is it easy to see why, on the harmonising principle, it 

 should ever have passed beyond this moderate degree of emphasis. 

 6. That the hen crossbill must require protection, at least as much as 

 the male, and that, since the young male's plumage shares in the com- 

 parative obscurity of hers, there can be no doubt that that of the 

 adult male must have diverged from it. But if crimson was more 

 protective than drab for him, why not for her the hen also, since the 

 habits and resorts of both are alike ? If, indeed, the male haunted 

 poppy-fields, whilst the female kept to forests of conifer, the principle 

 characteristic of whose foliage, whatever may be said about reds and 

 greens, has been aptly summed up by Longfellow in the epithet 

 " midnight," a case, perhaps, could be made out but such is not the 

 case. That foliage can and does hide (an oak is supposed to have 

 hidden Charles n.) I am well aware from practical experience ; and 

 having seen even the male golden oriole disappear, as if by magic, on 

 flying into this or that tree, I am not much impressed by that " almost 

 invisible " quality which is attributed to so many bright animals nowa- 

 days that one might almost be led to suppose that the dull ones must 

 be not less, but more conspicuous, since otherwise how are they ever 

 seen at all by a naturalist ? " Crimson," " flame colour," " carmine," 



1 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, 1884, vol. ii. p. 34. 



