THE LINNET. 



81 



what one notices between the sexes of many butterflies. The different form of 

 the wing in the sexes of birds appears rarely to be noted, the mere length being 

 recorded. The radius and ulna in the male are longer and the depression in front 

 of their junction with the humerus deeper than in the female, the primary coverts 

 are less exposed in the male, whilst the second, third, and fourth primaries are 

 emarginate in front, in the male ; but only the second and third, in the female ; 

 in the latter sex the primaries are more perfectly graded, whereas in the male 

 the outer edge forms a slight sinus ; the tail differs much in outline, as will be at 

 once seen from the cut. 



Young birds are very like the female. After the autumn moult the feathers 

 of the crown and breast have greyish borders, the crimson being dull and presenting 

 a mottled appearance ; this (in fully adult males) gradually changes to the bright 

 colouring at the approach of spring.* 



This species, which is variously called the Grey, Brown, or Red Linnet, 

 according to the age or plumage of the specimens so named, during the summer 



* Seebohm almost always explains this change of colouring, by asserting that the tips of the feathers 

 drop off; but if one obtains a bird in its transition stage the tips are frequently neither dropped nor abraded, 

 although undoubtedly in some species the edges are worn off, whilst in others the colouring alters in the 

 feathers themselves. 



