36 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



and others hold an intermediate view, which appears to me to be the 

 correct one. It cannot, however, be denied that, in confinement, red males 

 change to yellow after their first moult, and only differ from females in 

 not being quite so green ; they never reassume the red plumage. Yellow 

 males occasionally occur in a wild state, and are possibly old and barren 

 birds. 



