COMMON CROSSBILL. IS 



By the month of September the young males have become 

 more uniform in colour, the stripes are more diffused, and 

 their first autumnal moult commences by a change to one 

 of three different states, namely, to red only, or to yel- 

 low only, while others change to red and yellow mixed, 

 some feathers being red, some yellow, and some orange, 

 the last being the effect of red and yellow combined. The 

 red and yellow tints probably become much brighter as 

 the males grow older, many grades of tints being ob- 

 servable, some of which are as brilliant as others are dull. 



A red male, now before me, that had completed his 

 moult during his first autumn, has the beak dull reddish 

 brown, darkest in colour towards the tip of the upper 

 mandible ; irides dark brown ; the head, rump, throat, 

 breast, and belly, tile red ; the feathers on the back mixed 

 with some brown, producing a chestnut brown ; wing- 

 coverts, quill, and tail-feathers, nearly uniform dark brown ; 

 tail short, slightly forked ; vent, and under tail-coverts, 

 greyish white ; legs, toes, and claws, dark brown. The 

 central figure of our group represents such a bird. 



A second male bird killed at the same time as the red 

 bird just described, has the head, rump, and under surface 

 of the body, pale yellow, tinged with green ; the back 

 olive brown ; wings and tail-feathers like those of the red 

 bird. 



A third male, killed at the same time, has the top of 

 the head and the back a mixture of reddish brown and 

 dark orange ; the rump reddish orange ; the upper tail- 

 coverts bright orange ; the chin, throat, and upper part 

 of the breast, red, passing, on the lower part of the breast, 

 belly, and sides, to orange. 



Red males that have moulted in confinement have 

 changed during the moult to greenish yellow, and others 



