536 
2 
bill dark purplish blue; iris dark brown; legs fleshy brown. Total length about 5 inches, culmen 0°4, 
wing 3°15, tail 2°45, tarsus 0°6. 
Adult Female (Baden, 19th June). Resembles the male, but the yellow on the head covers a smaller area, 
the back is greyish, with a brown tinge, and washed with green, and the underparts are much paler 
and yellower, the breast being slate-blue intermixed with yellowish green. 
Adult Male in autumn (St. Blasien, Baden, 12th October). Resembles the male above described, but is 
rather brighter, more yellow, and less green in tinge, and the back is scarcely so green as in that 
specimen. 
Winter plumage (Corsica, 6th February). Resembles the autumn-plumaged bird; but the entire dorsal 
region is reddish brown with dark central stripes to the feathers, and slightly tinged with green; the 
underparts and the yellow portion of the head are also much brighter and yellower in tinge than in 
any other specimens I possess; and on the forehead it is clearly defined, and does not gradually merge 
into the dark colour of the crown. 
Obs. Whether this bird is the adult in full winter dress, or whether it is the young which has attained full 
plumage everywhere but on the back, I cannot say; but both specimens from Corsica have the back 
reddish brown, without any trace of slaty grey, and with only a slight sign of green, though in every 
other respect they agree precisely with the autumn-killed examples from Baden, except perhaps that in 
the male the yellow on the head and underparts is rather richer in colour, and more clearly defined, 
which argues against their being immature birds. I observe, on looking over my series of adult birds 
from Baden, that one or two have a trace, though only slight, of the brown back which is so conspicuous 
at the first glance in these Corsican examples; or else I should be almost inclined to look on these 
latter as belonging to a southern race: but I observe that Salvadori’s description of the adult bird (in 
summer ?) agrees closely with my specimens from Baden, and other authors state that the birds found 
in the south of Europe are identical with those from Switzerland. I can confirm this as regards the 
bird found in Spain, having examined the specimen in Mr. Saunders’s collection. 
Young Female (Baden, 19th June). Head, neck, back, and scapulars dull buffy brown, with dark brown 
stripes or markings along the centres of the feathers; rump paler, being buff; quills blackish, with 
narrow whitish edgings at the tip; primaries externally margined with pale yellowish buff; inner 
secondaries broadly margined, and both larger and lesser coverts broadly tipped, with warm yellowish 
buff, the latter forming two conspicuous bars across the wing; underparts buffy white, washed with 
sulphur-yellow, and indistinctly striped with greyish brown. The young males and females differ very 
slightly, the males being rather darker, and on the back have a tinge of reddish brown. 
Tue range of the Citril Finch is somewhat restricted; for it inhabits the mountain-ranges of 
Southern Europe during summer, and only leaves these when it is driven down by severe 
weather. It has not been recorded out of Europe proper, except by Loche, who says that it is 
a rare straggler to Algeria. 
It has not been met with in Northern Europe, nor in the northern part of Central Europe, 
except as a rare straggler; and it does not appear to breed further north than the Black Forest 
of Baden, where I met with it this summer. Borggreve writes that it has not been seen in 
North Germany; and Messrs. Degland and Gerbe state that its occurrence in the northern 
districts of France is accidental, and record an instance of its capture near Lille on the 14th 
