282 
fringilla purpurea. 
sides under the wings, streaked with dull reddish! 
legs, a dirty [nirplish flesh colour; hill, short, strool’ 
conical, and of a dusky horn colour; iris, dark Jia/*^' 
the feathers covering the ears are more dusky red tha*’ 
the other parts of the head. This is the liiale whe^ 
ai rived at his full colours. The female is nearly of thj 
same size, of a hrown olive or flaxen colour, streaki'* 
with dusky black; the head, seamed with lateral li®^ 
of whitish ; above and below the hind part of the 
feathers, are two streaks of white ; the breast is whitin^' 
streaked with a light flax colour ; tail and w'ings, as 
the male, only botli edged witli dull brown, instead <’! 
red ; belly and vent, white. This is also the colour » 
the young during the first, and to at least the end «' 
the seeoiul sea.so£i, when tlie males he^in to 
lighter yellowish, which gradually brightens to crimso'’’ 
the female alviays retains nearly the same appearaur^' 
The young male bird of the first year m.ay be dist)®' 
guished from the female by the tail of the fonner bei»f 
edged with olive green, that of the latter with broWi®. 
It is matter of doubt with me whether this spec'®* 
ought not to be classed with the loxia : the great thid*' 
ness of the bill, and similarity that prevails hetwe®® 
this and the pine grosbeak, almost induced me to adop‘ 
It into that class. But respect for other authorities 1"** 
prevented me from making this alteration. 
When these birds are taken in their crimson dr***’ 
and kejit in a cage till they moult tlieir feathers, thej 
uniformly change to their present appearance, 
sometimes never after receive their red colour. They 
are also subject, if well fed, to become so fat asliterajl/ 
to die of corpulency, of which I have seen sevenJ _'®' 
stances; being at these times subject to soraetbi”? 
resembling apoplexy, from which they sometimes 
cover in a few minutes, but of'tener expire iu the 
space of time. 
The female is entirely without red, and differs fr®’’’ 
the present only in having less yellow about her. 
These birds regularly arrive from the north, ^dic': 
they breed, iu September, and visit us from the so"' 
