36 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



and others hold an intermediate view, which appears to me to be the 

 correct one. » It cannot, however, he denied that, in confinement, red males 

 change to yellow after their first moult, and only differ from females in 

 not being quite so green ; they never reassume the red plumage. Yellow 

 males occasionally occur in a wiJd state, and are possibly old and barren 

 birds. 



