Variation in Color of Male House Finches

Descriptions of the California House Finch (Carpodacus me&anus frontalis) are quite uniform in recognizing that orange occasionally takes the place of the typical red in the color of the males. Bailey(l), Hoffmann( Dawson(3) and Wyman(4) all mention this in their descriptions of the species. The fact that the range in color is far wider than this is recognized, if not in the general literature on the subject, by all ornithologists and by many who are merely bird lovers.