THE ZooLoeist—May, 1875. 4435 
breast, which they retain only the first season; they then assume 
the garb of the female, which is retained for the rest of their lives, 
as in the case of the crossbill. This does not seem to be gene- 
rally understood by ornithologists, though the bird-fancier is quite 
familiar with the fact that the males never regain the red on the 
breast after moulting. Itis stated by Yarrell that the males assume 
the red breast in the breeding season. This is not quite correct, 
for just as many are found breeding without the red breast as 
with it."— Hancock, p. 55. 
Mr. Hancock is certainly in error with regard to the changes of 
plumage in this bird. He has drawn his conclusions from ob- 
servations made upon individuals kept in confinement, which prove 
nothing, as it is well known that many birds never regain their 
nuptial plumage in confinement after it is lost at the first autumnal 
moult. 
When the young male linnets shed their nest-feathers, the new 
ones on each side of the breast are chestnut-colour, fringed with 
gray: in the spring this fringe falls off and exposes the chestnut- 
colour, which, though generally rather brighter than it was in the 
autumn, seldom changes to the brilliant red which characterizes 
the adult birds. The second spring the males assume the red 
breast, which becomes brighter and brighter for three or four 
years; after which there is no further change, the bird being 
then fully adult. In this stage of its existence the crown of the 
head, nape and sides of the neck are pure bluish gray; throat 
and under part of the neck grayish white, with a few dark 
streaks ; back, scapulars and wing-coverts uniform bright chestnut- 
brown; forehead and sides of the breast brilliant carmine-red. 
In younger individuals, the chestnut colour on the back is rather 
darker, and the edges of the feathers pale, giving it a streaked 
appearance. 
For four or five successive years a pair of linnets built their nest 
in a laurel hedge in my garden. The male bird was lame, having, 
apparently, had one leg broken. I was therefore certain that it was 
the same bird which came year after year to the garden. The first 
year that I saw this bird it had uo red on the breast; the second 
spring the crimson colour appeared, but it was not till the fourth 
year that it attained the fully adult plumage. Having never been 
disturbed, this bird was so tame that it would sit on the hedge and 
sing when I was within a few feet of it. 
