82 
PINE GROSBEAK. 
If this, as Mr Pennant asserts, be the same species with 
that of the eastern continent, it would seem to inhabit almost 
the whole extent of the Arctic Regions. It is found in the 
north of Scotland, where Pennant suspects it breeds. It 
inhabits Europe as far north as Drontheim ; is common in 
all the pine forests of Asia, in Siberia, and the north of 
Russia ; is taken in autumn about Petersburg, and brought to 
market in great numbers. It returns to Lapland in spring ; 
is found in Newfoundland, and on the western coast of North 
America. # 
Were I to reason from analogy, I would say, that, from the 
great resemblance of this bird to the Purple Finch, ( Fringilla 
purpurea ,) it does not attain its full plumage until the second 
summer; and is subject to considerable change of colour in 
moulting, which may have occasioned all the differences we 
find concerning it in different authors. But this is actually 
ascertained to be the case ; for Mr Edwards saw two of these 
birds alive in London, in cages ; the person in whose custody 
they were, said they came from Norw T ay; that they had 
moulted their feathers, and were not afterwards so beautiful 
as they w^ere at first. One of them, he says, was coloured 
very much like the Green Finch, ( L . chloris.) The Purple 
Finch, though much smaller, has the rump, head, back, and 
breast, nearly of the same colour as the Pine Grosbeak, feeds 
in the same manner, on the same food, and is also subject to 
like changes of colour. 
Since writing the above, I have kept one of these Pine 
Grosbeaks, a male, for more than half a year. In the month 
of August those parts of the plumage which were red became 
of a greenish yellow, and continue so still. In May and June 
its song, though not so loud as some birds of its size, was 
extremely clear, mellow, and sweet. It would warble out 
this for a whole morning together, and acquired several of the 
notes of a Red Bird (L. cardinalis ,) that hung near it. It is 
* Pennant. 
