2236 The Zoologist— August, J 870. 



[In his 'Spring and Summer in Lapland' the late Mr. Wheel- 

 wright has some such original observations on the variation in 

 plumage to which Mr. Rodd refers, that I think no apology is 

 required for introducing them here : the change and variation in 

 plumage to which these birds are subject has long engaged the 

 attention of our best ornithologists, and much may be learned from 

 so excellent an observer as Mr. Wheelwright: — "As regards the 

 crossbills, I can clearly prove, by specimens killed in a state of 

 nature, that they have four distinct dresses, assumed at different ages, 

 and these 1 will shortly describe. The first dress, after just leaving 

 the nest till up to the first moult in the autumn (in September), is 

 greenish brown, with dark longitudinal streaks down each feather; 

 and in this first plumage there is little difference between the male 

 and the female. In the nest plumage the beaks of the young birds 

 are straight; but the mandibles soon begin to cross each other after 

 leaving the nest, and in young birds of the year, killed by me in 

 November, the beak was nearly as much crooked as in the older birds. 

 Sometimes the point of the under mandible crosses to the right, some- 

 times to the left. As soon as the first autumnal moult is complete, 

 the females are easily distinguished from the males. The young 

 striped feathers are very apparent in both, all through the winter and 

 following spring; but all the under parts are tinged in the young 

 males with yellow-orange, and in the females with bright yellow. In 

 the males the heads and rumps are orange, in the females only tinged 

 with yellow. In not one single young male of the year which I have 

 shot in the winter (and the birds of the year are easily distinguished 

 at this season by the presence of the dark-striped feathers) was there 

 the slightest indication to lead one to suppose that he would become 

 red before the next moult. The question is, when will that moult 

 take place ? some fancy in May, some in the ensuing September. I 

 think it very probable that a change in colour takes place in May ; for 

 it appears to me that this orange-colour gradually reddens without 

 moulting. And so much do the shades vary that scarcely two young 

 males are exactly alike. It is impossible to say how long this young 

 plumage lasts, but I am inclined to think certainly until the second 

 autumnal moult of the bird, perhaps gradually becoming redder, and 

 probably in many birds even longer; for early in November I have 

 killed young males of a beautiful orange-red colour, which, from their 

 size and general appearance, and the total absence of the dark striped 

 feathers of youth, could not have been birds of the year. These 



