NOTES AND QUERIES. 225 



able to enlighten me. I have four males in winter plumage. " No 1 " is 

 labelled " Near Milan, November, 1891 " : this specimen is very brown on 

 the head, back, wings, and flanks ; the bases of the feathers on the fore- 

 head do not show much yellow, but there is a good deal of this colour on 

 the breast. " No. 2 " is labelled " N. Italy, November, 1884 ": this bird 

 has got a certain amount of brown on the back and flanks, but on the 

 whole is much yellower than " No. 1"; the edges to the wing-coverts are 

 greener, the breast and throat bright yellow, and the bases to the feathers 

 on the forehead are of the same colour, although this is hidden almost 

 entirely by grey tips. " No. 3," labelled " Nice, November, 1891," is very 

 much like " No. 2," but is altogether greyer on the upper parts, and the 

 back shows very little brown. " No. 4," from South Spain, dated 13th 

 November, 1890, is not unlike a bird in spring dress ; the yellow is, how- 

 ever, less brilliant, though there is just as much of it; the line over the 

 eye and the forehead are not in the least obscured with grey ; the colour of 

 the upper tail-coverts is practically the same in all four specimens, nor is 

 there any material difference in the wing-quills or tails. In addition to the 

 above, Mr. O. V. Aplin kindly sent me for comparison three male birds 

 from his collection. These comprised a bird in full spring dress ; " No. 5," 

 labelled "Florence Market, 15th December, 1891," which may be placed 

 in the same class as "Nos. 2 and 3"; and " No. 6," from North Italy, 

 October, 1884, which is very much in the same dress as "No. 1." Now, 

 on examination of the few skins at my disposal, I originally thought that 

 birds like " No, 5 " might be young ; for I had a recollection of having 

 noticed specimens like " No. 4 " in Italy last winter, presumably older 

 birds, with clear yellow foreheads. On mentioning this in a letter to Mr. 

 Aplin, he suggested that perhaps the grey tips to the feathers on the head 

 would be worn off before spring, which seems not unlikely to be the case. 

 But this could hardly have occurred in " No. 4," a specimen I have only 

 recently acquired ; for this bird is dated " November," and it seems impos- 

 sible for the grey edges acquired after the autumnal moult to have been lost 

 so soon. The text-books generally state that the male in winter is duller in 

 colouring than in spring, and that the yellow — especially on the head — is 

 obscured by grey edges to the feathers. Mr. Dresser, in his ' Birds of 

 Europe,' says — " Differs from the specimen in summer dress merely in 

 having the yellow on the head obscured by greyish brown tips to the 

 feathers ; the back is less marked with yellow ; and the wing-feathers have 

 rather broader buffy white margins tinged with yellow ; but the rump is as 

 bright yellow as in the spring, if not brighter." This description applies 

 more or less to " Nos. 2, 3, and 5 " ; so that we may assume, allowing a good 

 margin for individual variation, that there are adult birds in ordinary winter 

 dress. In the books to which I have referred there is no description of the 

 brown dress of " Nos. 1 and 6," but presumably birds weariug it are in 



