Jan., 1901 I 
THE CONDOR 
13 
Dichromatism in the Genus Carpodacus 
RICHARD C. MCGREGOR. 
[Read before the Northern Division of the Cooper Orn. Clnh,l 
O CCASIuNAD finches, in which 
yellow is present or even pre- 
dominant over the red, must 
come to the notice of every field or- 
nithologist of the west; in fact we may 
Icok for some yellow feathers in about 
one-half the males of this group. Loxia, 
Pinicola and probably other genera 
have a yellow phase of regular occur- 
rence in the immature plumage. It is 
this dichromatism which led me to make 
a few remarks before the Club — not 
with the intention of reporting an3dhing 
new but with the hope that some mem- 
bers might take an inteiest in what has 
interested me. 
The following notes were made on 
specimens of Carpodaci in my collection 
and treat of the occurrence of 3"ellow 
among the North American species. I 
am unfortunate in having no repre- 
sentatives of Mexican forms but these 
would doubtless show the same varia- 
tions in plumage color. 
Yellow feathers are rare in Carpoda- 
ciis ptirpiireus califoi'niais and I have 
never seen them in C. cassini. Of the 
former race Mr. T. E. Slevin has two 
males in which a few yellow feathers 
occur on the breast. They were taken 
at P'airfax, California, in December. In 
the subgenus Burrica, including as it 
does the so-called house finches, the 
3'ellow phase is common and these 
plumages will now be de.scribed for 
each race examined. 
Among the finches from the vSan Ben- 
ito Islands iC. nicgregori), I have never 
seen two alike. The colors range from 
bright crim.son through orange into 
lemon yellow with all manner of varia- 
tions resulting from combinations of 
these colors and their shades or tints. 
It is impo.ssible to take any example 
and sa3" it is the typical coloration. 
The finch of Guadalupe Island (C. 
a’up/tts) shows more stability in its col- 
' ration but even here we often find 
birds vary-ing from the normal. Of sev- 
enteen males before me, nine, or over 
one-half, are more or less yellow. In 
two of these the rump, head, and breast 
are clear lemon 3^ellow, in a third the 
feathers are about equally red and yel- 
low, of a pale washed-out look. The 
remaining six have a few yellow feath- 
ers irregularly mixed with the crimson. 
The proportion of yellow birds which 
really occurs in probably less than the 
above figures would indicate as this 
series was selected, somewhat, with a 
view to getting the abnormal examples. 
xA.mong mainland birds (C m. obscitr- 
us), great deviation from the crimson 
t3qie is rarer, though even here it is 
surprising how nian3' shades of color 
occur. In a series of over fift3" males 
before me including skins from Col- 
orado, nearh’- the whole length of Cali- 
fornia, and four from northern Lower 
California there are thirt3^-three in 
which more or less 3’ellow occurs. How- 
ever, four onh" are .strikingly different 
from the normal, three being yellow 
with no red and one almost orange with 
ver3" few yellow feathers. Twent3"- 
nine possess from one or two to a dozen 
lemon colored feathers mixed among the 
red. Among the red examples, too, 
there is great variation. Many are a 
deep rose pink (young of the 3rear?), 
others are crimson or near vermilion. 
Birds taken just before or during breed- 
ing season have an indescribable lustre 
which is onl3^ ascribable to intensifica- 
tion or addition of pigment. 
Of six examples from Coronado and 
San Clemente Islands (C. cloiienfis ), owq 
from each island has a few yellow 
feathers: another from Coronado is al- 
most brick red. 
Even in C. riiberrimus from San Jose 
del Cabo, we find cases of reversion, for 
although this form is ‘very red’ as its 
name indicates, there are occasional 
specimens with yellow feathers. I have 
