YELLOW BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH. 
15 
The American goldfinch has been figured and described by- 
Mr Catesby,* who says, that the back part of the head is a 
dirty green, & c. This description must have been taken 
while the bird was changing its plumage. At the approach 
of fall, not only the rich yellow fades into a brown olive, but 
the spot of black on the crown and forehead becomes also of 
the same olive tint. Mr Edwards has also erred in saying, 
that the young male bird has the spot of black on the fore- 
head; this it does not receive until the succeeding spring, f 
The figure in Edwards is considerably too large ; and that by 
Catesby has the wings and tail much longer than in nature, 
and the body too slender, — very different from the true form 
of the living bird. Mr Pennant also tells us, that the legs of 
this species are black ; they are, however, of a bright cinnamon 
colour ; but the worthy naturalist, no doubt, described them 
as he found them in the dried and stuffed skin, shrivelled up 
and blackened with decay ; and thus too much of our natural 
history has been delineated. 
* Nat. Hist. Car. vol. i. p. 43. 
f These changes take place in the common siskin of this country : indeed 
changes, and, in many cases, similar to those alluded to, are common, according 
to season, among all our Fringillidce ; the common chaffinch loses the pale 
gray of his forehead, which becomes deep bluish purple ; the head and back 
of the brambling, or mountain finch, becomes a deep glossy black ; and the 
forehead and breasts of the different linnets, from a russet brown, assume a 
rich and beautiful crimson. They are chiefly produced by the falling off of 
the ends of the plumules of each feather, which before concealed the richer 
tints of its lower parts ; at other times, by the entire change of colour. The 
tint itself, however, is always much increased in beauty and gloss as the 
season for its display advances ; at its termination the general moult commences, 
when the feathers are replaced with their new elongated tips, of a more sombre 
hue, which, no doubt, adds to the heat of the winter clothing, and remain 
until warmer weather and desires promote their dispersion. — Ed. 
