ROSY BULLFINCH. 11 



of tlie head, and on the rump, and in paler shades on the otherwise 

 reddish yellow edges of the feathers on the back and the lesser wing 

 coverts. The specimens vary in this matter according to age, and 

 probably also from climate and. other inflaences. So also the red in 

 our specimens from the Amoorland, although exactly distributed as in 

 the bird from Western Siberia, is yet paler and more of cinnabar 

 than rose-colour, as in the latter." 



In the young before the first moult the entire plumage is of a 

 reddish grey, longitudinally spotted with brown; with two bands of 

 reddish yellow on the wing, and the rump yellowish. After the first 

 moult a little white appears on the forehead, and the red becomes 

 more brilliant while the spots disappear: thus the specimen described 

 by Pallas as having white only on the forehead, and with its plumage 

 browner, must have been a young bird after moulting. — (Temminck.) 



The following is from Naumann's account of this bird, which I 

 insert to make my descrij)tion as complete as possible. I quote from 

 the above accurate observer's beautiful work on the "Birds of Ger- 

 many," a work, which I may take this opportunity of saying, is, in 

 my opinion, both for full and elaborate description^ and for the beauty 

 and natural expression of its illustrations, perhaps unrivalled in orni- 

 thological literature. — " The size is that of a Mountain Finch, and 

 larger than the Common Linnet, but in contour it somewhat resembles 

 them both. The beak is reddish grey, the root of the superior mandible 

 being yellowish; the round nostrils sire ornamented with stiff small 

 feathers, and the iris is rust brown. The brownish yellow feet are 

 tolerably strong and robust; the claws, not very large, but sharp, are 

 dark brown at the tip, but have otherwise the colour of the feet. 



"'The old male has two distinct characters of plumage, — brown, and 

 a splendid carmine red; and the last, with which the whole bird seems 

 to be suffused, makes it one of the most beautiful of northern birds. 

 The head and neck are carmine red, with a brown grey sparkling 

 through it, so that the feathers (like, in fact, those of the whole bird,) 

 are more or less dark, having a ground of grey and white, and the 

 red colouring only taking possession of the tips or edges of the feathers. 

 On the temples, the hinder part of the head, the throat, to the middle 

 of the breast, and the rump, this colouring is the brightest, a deep 

 brilliant rose red; and on the sides of the breast dark brown arrow- 

 shaped spots on a whitish ground, becoming larger on the flanks, with, 

 on this part of the body, a yellow white tinge; the belly and under 

 wing coverts are white, with rosy red borders. There is one peculi- 

 arity to be noticed, namely, that in this northern bird, as well as in 

 the male of Pyrrhula longicaudaf Temminck, which is the Loxia sihirica 



