BULLFINCH. 607 



the nest, young males assume a brighter red colour on the 

 breast and the black on the crown of the head. The 

 bright tints of the adult male are not obtained till after 

 the second moult. 



Bullfinches appear to be liable to great changes of co- 

 lour in their plumage. White of Selborne says, in one of 

 his letters, " A few years ago I saw in a cage a cock Bull- 

 finch which had been caught in the fields after it had come 

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

 and, blackening every succeeding year, it became coal 

 black at the end of four. Its chief food was hempseed : 

 such 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 colours. The occurrence of varieties, partially 

 or wholly white, have been recorded in the Magazine of 

 Natural History, and in the Naturalist. Professor Nilsson, 

 of Lund, in the coloured 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 surface of the 

 body, are of a delicate rose colour. This bird is quoted as 

 the Loxia flamengo of Sparrman. 



