MOUNTAIN LINNET, 573 
lower part of the breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, dull 
brownish white ; legs, toes, and claws, very dark brown. 
The red colour on the rump is a sexual as well as a sea- 
sonal assumption, peculiar to the male only m summer. 
The whole length of the bird is five inches and one quarter ; 
but the body being slender, and the tail-feathers lengthy, 
this bird has a more elongated appearance than the Common 
Linnet, or the Mealy Redpole. From the carpal joint to 
the end of the wing, three inches; the first and third quill- 
feathers equal in length; the second longer than either, 
and the longest in the wing; the fourth feather one-eighth 
of an inch shorter than the third. 
The female is without the red colour on the rump, and is 
also lighter in colour on the back ; her beak, less decidedly 
yellow at the base, is dusky brown at the tip. 
Young birds, like the females, are lighter in colour gene- 
rally, and are thus distinguished from old males. 
