that the European Bullfinch was an inhabitant of Japan ; and
M. Temminck includes it in his recent Catalogue of the!
Birds of Europe found in that country.
In the adult male the beak is of a shining black; the
irides dark brown ; the whole of the top of the head jet
black; nape of the neck, backhand lesser wing-coverts, delicate
bluish grey; the greater wing-coverts black,. the ends'
white, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing ; , the rump
above white ; upper tail-coverts black ; all the quill and tail-
feathers also black, tinged with blue, but the primary wing-
feathers not so dark as the tertials. The chin black; ear-
coverts, sides of the neck, throat, breast, and belly, tile-red ;
vent and under tail-coverts white | unfi^r surface of the. wings
slate-grey ; under surface of the tail-feathers greyish black;
legs, toes, and claws, purple brown.
The whole length of the; bird rather more than 'six inches.
From the carpal joint: to the end of the wing three-inches and
one-eighth: the second, third, 'and fourth primaries,-nearly.,
equal in length, and the longest in the wing; the first and
fifth feathers are also equal in length, but each, about one
eighth shorter than the second* third, or fourth.
The female has the grey colour of the hack more mixed
with brown; the under surface of the body, where tie malegi -
red, is in her of a brownish purple red ; the head, wings, and
tail, not quite so pure a black.
Young birds in their first feathers resemble the female,
but are without the black head. Some time after leaving the
nest, young males assume a brighter red colour on the breast
and the black on the crown of the head. The bright tints of
the adult male are not obtained tHl after the second moult.
Bullfinches appear to be liable to great changes of colour
in their plumage. White of Selbome says, in one of. his
letters, “ A few years ago I saw in a cage a cock Bullfinch
which had been caught in the fields after it had come-to its
full colours. In about a year it began to look dingy ; and,
Slackening every succeeding year, it became coal black at the
end of four. .Its chief food was hempseed : such influence
has food on the colour of animals.” Morton, in his History
of Northamptonshire, as quoted by Pennant, gives another
instance of such à change, with this addition, that the year
following, "after moultingf thé- bk.d recovered its natural co-
dofite. The ®]ecnirêhcê;:ô£ VarietiJ||f partially or wholly white,
'have been recorded in the Magazine^! Natural History, and
in the Naturalist*. -Professor Nilsson oî Lund, in the coloured
illustrations ‘of FàîihWof Scandinkvia, has figured a
beautifûriy marked v a r i e t^ # ’-the Bullfinch, which is: pure
white on tM ’back* wings* and tail ;■ W t the heady and all the
under surface of HHHRB a delicate rose colour: This
bird is quoted as the Loixia flamengo of Sparrman;