CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 51 
The bill and feet are horn colour; the lower mandible is paler; 
the iiides are dark brown. The head, neck beneath, and superior 
portion of the breast, are brilliant crimson, most intense near the 
bill and over the eye; the space between the bill and the eyes is 
cinereous-gray, as well as the cheeks, and the small feathers imme¬ 
diately around the bill; the crimson feathers are brown at base, 
being red only at tip. The occiput, and the neck above and on 
each side, are brown, with a reddish cast, the feathers beino- mar- 
gined with pale; the back is dusky-brownish; the rump and supe¬ 
rior tail coverts are crimson, but less vivid than that of the head; 
the inferior portion of the breast, the belly, and vent, are whitish, 
each feather having a broad fuscous line; the general plumage is 
lead colour at base. The wings are blackish-brown, the primaries 
being broadly margined within, towards the base, with whitish, 
and exteriorly edged with grayish; the coverts and secondaries 
are edged with dull grayish. The tail is blackish-brown, hardly 
emarginated; the lateral feathers are edged, on the inner side, with 
whitish. 
Such is the description of our male specimen; but as it was 
procured when summer was far advanced, a season in which the 
plumage begins to fade, it is proper to observe, that the colouring 
of this bird is probably much more brilliant in its full spring dress, 
the crimson extending much further down on the back, &c. As 
the season advances, the tips of the feathers, which are the only 
parts of a crimson colour, being gradually worn off, the bird as 
gradually loses its brilliancy, and, in the autumnal and winter 
plumage, exhibits the humble appearance of the female. 
The female is altogether destitute of the brilliant colour, being 
dusky-brown above, the feathers margined on each side with dull 
whitish, the whole inferior surface is whitish, each feather having 
a brown longitudinal line in the middle, obsolete on the vent, which 
is almost pure white. 
A change similar to that above mentioned, takes place in the 
