196 On the Change of Plumage in the Common Crossbill. 



■ he was caged in the winter, but at the next autumnal moult he 

 changed to bright yellow-green — brightest on the rump and 

 head — and which dress he has worn for ten years. This may, 

 or may not, be the effect of confinement, but as I have killed 

 one old male parrot crossbill in this dress, from his nest in the 

 open forest, I do not hesitate to pronounce it normal. This 

 latter dress is very different from the young yellow or orange 

 dress first noticed. 



The only change that I can observe in the female crossbills 

 is that the yellow shading on the head and rump appears to 

 become brighter with age, but always brightest in the breeding 

 season. 



Of course, much of what I have stated must be from sup- 

 position, as it is impossible to obtain certain proofs regarding 

 the change of plumage in this bird, if, as so many naturalists 

 tell us, confinement so totally changes its colour. No one can 

 positively say that these orange birds are what I suppose them 

 to be — birds of the second or third year ; but the young yellow 

 birds which I shot from the nest, with more than half the dark 

 young feathers remaining, clearly proved, at least to me, that 

 the first plumage in the young male, after the spotted dress of 

 youth, is not red, as has been erroneously stated, but yellow 

 green; and the gradual change from yellow to orange, and 

 from orange to deep red, is so marked in many of my specimens, 

 that 1 have not the slightest doubt in my mind that the 

 changes of plumage are as I have stated above. Still it is a 

 subject I approach with diffidence, as it is one which has 

 puzzled so many better naturalists than myself. However, in 

 a case like the present, a man can but lay facts before his 

 readers, and leave them to draw their own conclusions ; and 

 even if he is wrong there is no harm in his stating what con- 

 clusions he draws himself. The subject is a most interesting 

 one, and I do not believe any naturalist has taken more pains 

 to arrive at the truth than myself. 



I must, before concluding, notice a rather singular fact, 

 that in not one of all the birds I mention as being killed 

 between October and April, did I observe a single blood 

 feather, either yellow, orange, or red, as in the grosbeaks, 

 which I shot in deep moult in August, or in the ptarmigan, 

 which show blood feathers at every change of plumage. It 

 proves, I fancy, that the moult was long over before I began 

 to collect my specimens, and I fancy it goes also far to prove 

 that a great part of the change takes place between the true 

 moults by an actual change of colour. 



