128 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



finches of Sweden, (fringilla cselebs,) migrate only, and this assertion is confirmed from, 

 seeing only females of that species, in certain parts of England, at that time. And to 

 show an instance of a peculiar exception from a general rule, we have only to advert to 

 the arrival of some birds into Great Britain against a strong wind. 



We all know that the notion of the arrival of the different sexes of this bird, at differ- 

 ent times, in this part of the country, is unfounded. They arrive on Long Island some- 

 time in May, and have their young in June, when the distinction of sexes in the young, 

 as well as old, is obvious, the young males resembling the old ones ; and they are, at that 

 season, brought alive to our markets, by the bird catchers, for sale, and sold to be kept iu 

 cages. Tiiey retire from us the latter end of the summer, at the same time ; but the 

 positive assertion of Catesby, and others, that females are only seen in Carolina in Sep- 

 tember, and that he had verified this opinion by dissection, was calculated to produce ac- 

 quiescence, until Wilson cleared up this subject. He says, that they arrive in Penn- 

 sylvania from the 12th to the 20th of May, when they go to the north ; that from June till 

 August, the male changes his colour, and assimilates the female, when they retire to the 

 south ; that the organs of birds, by which the sex is detected, are, in autumn, no larger 

 than the smallest pin's head, and that the spring increases them a hundred fold, which led 

 to the error of Catesby, when he applied the anatomical knife. (Wilson's Ornithology? 

 vol. 2.) That in October they visit Jamaica and Cuba, and return to the continent early 

 in the spring. This is a most satisfactory solution of all the doubts which have existed 

 on this subject. When Dr. Barton states, that the females exclusively make their ap- 

 pearance in Philadelphia, about the 20th of August, the male bird has then changed its 

 colour, and both sexes are on their southern journey. When Catesby and Bartram say, 

 that the females only appear in autumn in Carolina, it is only a continuation of the southern 

 progress of both sexes identified in external appearance. When Catesby made his dis- 

 sections, and concluded that all his subjects were females, it was in September, when the 

 sexual distinctions are not palpable ; but when they became so in the spring, he had no 



difficulty in recognising both male and female. 



I might extend these remarks, on similar topics of inquiry, but I have already occupied 

 too much ground : these slight sketches will indicate what an interesting and spacious 

 field of investigation might be explored. 



