78 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



tail-feathers and the terminal half of the rest are blackish brown, bordered 

 with slate-grey; the remaining portion of the latter feathers is bright 

 yellow. Bill fleshy pink ; legs, toes, and claws pale brown ; irides hazel. 

 The female is much duller in colour than the male, and browner ; but the 

 pattern of colour on the wings and tail is the same, although the yellow is 

 not so brilliant. Young birds in nestling-plumage resemble the female, 

 and have the yellow on the wings and tail. After the first moult the 

 young males gain the adult plumage. After the autumn moult the feathers 

 have pale margins, which conceal much of the bright tints of the plumage. 

 A specimen of the Nonpareil Finch, Cyanospiza ciris, was taken alive 

 in 1802 on Portland Island, and was recorded by Montagu under the 

 name of '^White-winged Grosbeak,'' m the Supplement to his 'Ornitho- 

 logical Dictionary ' (1813) . It had evidently escaped from confinement. 

 It is an inhabitant of Central and North America, and, as a land-bird 

 purely confined to the New World, requires no further mention here. 



NEST OF GREENFINCH. 



