SCARLET ROSE-FINCH. 49 



feather obscurely margined with crimson. The underparts below the 

 breast gradually fade into huffish white on the under tail-coverts. Bill, 

 legs, feet, and claws brown ; irides hazel. The female is a very plain- 

 looking bird, not unlike a small hen Sparrow. The general colour is a 

 neutral brown, darkest on the wings, tail, and the centres of the feathers 

 of the head, nape, throat, and breast, palest on the tips of the wirtg-^K>verts, 

 the margins of the innermost secondaries and of the throat and breast- 

 feathers, and on the rest of the underparts. The back and rump are 

 slightly suffused with olive. 



The changes of plumage in this species have never been clearly described. 

 The female in first winter plumage is very brown, and has the dark 

 centres of the feathers much developed. In this stage it bears a striking 

 resemblance to the cross between the Linnet and the Greenfinch (Fringilla 

 cannabina x chloris) ; but the latter may at once be distinguished by the 

 obscureness of its wing-bars and by the shape of its bill. Seen from 

 above, the bill of the Carpodacus is a cone with convex sides, whilst that 

 of the Fringilla is a cone with concave sides. The female in first summer 

 plumage is scarcely distinguishable from the adult ; the brown centres 

 of the feathers appear to fade or bleach, and the pale margins to abrade, 

 so that the streaks are much less conspicuous. No further change 

 takes place in the plumage of the female beyond the faded and abraded 

 appearance of the feathers just before the autumn moult. 



Males in first winter plumage are scarcely distinguishable from adult 

 females, and even in first summer plumage are sometimes indistinguishable 

 from them. I shot one of these males in the plumage of the female in 

 the valley of the Yenesay on June 20, which I sexed myself; and Major 

 Biddulph obtained several near Gilgit in July, which were evidently 

 breeding. Probably no males attain more than an occasional faint rosy 

 tinge until after their second autumn moult. If this be so, the adult 

 plumage is not assumed until after the third autumn moult, and males 

 of the second year may be recognized by the almost entire absence of 

 the crimson on the back and underparts below the breast. The fully 

 adult male retains his brilliant livery throughout the year, some allow- 

 ance being made for wear and tear, which is only very apparent in late 

 summer, just before the autumn moult. 



If this explanation of the difference in the plumages of the Scarlet 

 Rose-Finch be the true one, Jerdon's theory that the winter plumage is 

 duller than that of summer, and Dresser's theory that the summer 

 plumage is more brilliant than that of spring, fall to the ground. Newton 

 does not refer to the subject. 



VOL. II. 



