British Fringillinae. 



41 



always varied with mouse-brown, and sometimes wholly of that 

 colour. The wings are blacker in the cock ; blue-black, sometimes 

 touched with bronzy green at base, whereas in the hen they are 

 rusty black ; the wing-belt is narcissus-yellow in adult cocks, 

 primrose-yellow in adult hens, but of the same tint in Greypates ; 

 the hinder portion of this belt is narrower in the hen, and more 

 suffused with buff at the edges than in the cock ; the crimson 

 " blaze " or mask on the face is brighter, but varies in extent, so 

 that the character given by catchers and others, " blaze extending to 

 behind the eye," is not a constant male character. 



I confirmed the whole of the above points in April 1903 by a 

 careful examination of the extensive collection of skins in the 

 Natural History Museum. To those not familiar with the sexual 

 characters of this bird, the study of skins in any very large collection 

 might be a trifle puzzling, inasmuch as (owing to the perfunctory 

 manner in which collectors often have to examine their day's bag 

 when skinning, and to the occasional carelessness of taxidermists in 

 labelling those which they prepare for the cabinet) a palpably 

 wrongly-sexed specimen here and there must of necessity crop up ; 

 but with the majority correctly sexed, and personal knowledge of 

 the male and female characters, one can safely and contentedly 

 ignore these pretenders. 



I have entered thus fully into the sexual differences in the 

 Goldfinch because amateurs find more difficulty with it than with 

 most British birds, although its characters are so well defined. 



The Siskin (Chrysomitris sjrinus). 



The female is smaller 

 than the male, with 

 broader crown and 

 shorter beak ; she is 

 altogether duller and 

 greyer in colouring, with 

 less yellow on the rump, 

 wings, and tail, no black 

 on crown or chin, and 

 more streaked under 

 parts. 



The Bullfinch 



(Pyrrhula europcea). 



The female is slightly 

 duller than the male on 

 the upper parts, and all 

 the salmon -red of the 

 male is replaced by soft 

 dove-brown. 



J3u.llfc.-ich 



-<\ -M 



