FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. 59 
and, with the neck, the back, and rump, is brownish-olive, the 
latter part being of a lighter shade than the preceding portions; 
the upper tail coverts are greenish-white. The frontlet, cheeks, 
sides of the neek, throat, and upper part of the breast, are pale 
greenish-yellow; the lower portion of the breast, belly, vent, flanks, 
under wing and under tail coverts, are whitish. The wings and 
tail, which always afford the most constant specific characters, are 
like those of the male, except that the black colour is less intense, 
and the white is less pure, being slightly tinged with rufous. 
In this state of plumage, the bird closely resembles the Fringilla 
citrinella of the south of Europe, which however can always be 
distinguished from it by several characters, but more particularly 
by its greenish-yellow rump, and by being destitute of the whitish 
spot at the tip of the inner web of the tail feathers. The young 
are so like the females as to be distinguished with difficulty; their 
colours, however, are still less lively; they assume the adult livery 
in the spring, but do not exhibit all the brilliancy of the perfect 
bird until the third moult. 
The American Goldfinch moults twice a year, in the seasons of 
spring and autumn. At the spring moult the males obtain their 
vivid colouring, which is lost at the autumnal change, and replaced 
by a more humble dress, similar to that of the female, from which 
sex they cannot then be readily distinguished. The black of the 
wings is, however, somewhat more intense; the white of the wings 
and of the tail is dull and dirty, and a yellowish tint prevails around 
the eyes, as well as on the neck. From this statement it follows, 
that Wilson’s figure represents the adult male in that brilliant dress 
in which it appears for the space of four or five months only; whilst 
the figure in the annexed plate exhibits the invariable colours of 
the female and young, as well as the appearance of the male for 
the remaining seven months in the year. 
As the season advances, the plumage of the adult male gradually 
changes, but not simultaneously in the different individuals, so that 
