PINE-GROSBEAK. 185 



The adult female a good deal resembles the adult male, 

 but entirely wants any red colour, that being replaced by a 

 more or less golden-yellow (tinged in places with green) except 

 on the back which is of an almost uniform dark slate-grey, 

 and there is but little trace of yellow on the rump and flanks. 



The female killed at Harrow has the bill orange-brown ; 

 the irides hazel : the head, ear-coverts and nape honey-yellow ; 

 back and scapulars slate-grey ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 honey-yellow ; both sets of wing-coverts, and all the wing- 

 quills greyish-black, edged and tipped with white, with- 

 out any red tinge ; tail above, uniform greyish-black ; all the 

 lower surface uniform ash-grey : legs, toes and claws, dark 

 brown. 



This bird was considered to have been in the plumage 

 assumed after the first autumnal moult. The cock of the 

 same age is very similar, but the yellow of the head, nape 

 and rump is more or less strongly tinged with red, and the 

 breast is clouded with yellow. 



The nestling also seems to resemble the hen, but the dull 

 grey has only a slight green tinge, and that chiefly on the 

 head and rump ; while the wing-feathers are edged and tipped 

 with grey instead of dull white. 



Respecting the sequence of the changes of plumage which 

 obtains in this species much has been written and much of it 

 erroneously. Especially mistaken are those who observing 

 what takes place in caged birds infer that the same is the 

 rule for birds that are at liberty. Though the cause has not 

 yet been fully explained, it is certain that some groups of 

 Fringillidfc never assume their brightest colours in captivity. 

 Among such are the species of the genus Linota, as the term 

 is used in this work. Probably also the species last described 

 and the present certainly is subject to the same disability, as 

 are the Crossbills, an account of which is to follow. It is per- 

 fectly well known that a cock Pine- Grosbeak, however red he 

 may be when caught, will in confinement lose his ruddy hues 

 at the first moult, and, so long as he is a prisoner, never 

 regain them the red being replaced by a more or less bright 

 tint of yellow or yellowish- green. Further notice of this 



