The female is rather smaller, and has not so much red round the bill; the bridle is brownish; the cheeks are mixed with light brown; the lesser wing coverts are brown; the back dark brown. The size, or the want of some white spots at the tips of the feathers, do not serve to distinguished the male from the female, as some bird-catchers say; nor ought we either to imagine that the size or number of these spots constitute different varieties; for all these distinctions are accidental, and depend on physical strength and age. Our bird-catchers think the large ones that are nearly the shape of the greater redpole form a distinct species, and they give them the name of Fir Goldfinches, because they say they always build in fir forests. Those that do not exceed the size of the red-breast, they call Orchard Goldfinches, because they suppose they always build in orchards. But these differences and pretences are imaginary, because both are found of different sizes, the orchard goldfinch large, and the fir, or wood goldfinch, quite small. The young ones that are hatched first are always stronger and larger than those hatched last, because they often carry off the food intended for the latter, and, therefore, being better fed, they become larger and stronger. This is sufficient to explain the difference of size in different individuals of the same species. The following varieties are better established:--1. The goldfinch, with a yellow breast; 2. With a white head; 3. With the head black--four young ones of this variety were found in the same nest; 4. The white goldfinch; 5. And the black goldfinch, this being either entirely black, which often happens in a cage, from giving it too much hemp seed, or from old age; or it only retains the yellow spot on the wings, which is also occasioned by captivity. M. Schilbach, superintendant of the menagerie of Cassel, tried an experiment on a whole brood. He deprived the birds of the light of the sun, even covered the cage with a piece of cloth, and, by these means, obtained very black goldfinches, with only the yellow spot on the wings; but they changed colour after moulting. Those in which the black does not change are very old. It is, in fact, a sign of approaching death. HABITATION.--In their wild state goldfinches are found in all parts of Europe, frequenting orchards, brambles, thickets, and mountainous districts, interspersed with wood and fields, during the summer. These birds are stationary, not changing their haunts in winter; they merely assemble in the autumn in families, or rather in little flocks of fifteen or twenty, seeking here and there places abounding in thistles, and only when the snow becomes too deep leaving such localities for others more accessible.