294 NOTES ON THE 



reported through many years from nearly all the openly tim- 

 bered sections especially, and less frequently from prairie dis- 

 tricts where trees have come to be considerably grown for 

 shade and ornamentation. During the winter of 1875, I found 

 them exceptionally represented in the vicinity of Minneapolis 

 until the 18th of April. Occasionally individuals have been 

 seen still later in other years. M. F. L. Washburn reports the 

 species common in Otter Tail county, particularly at Lake 

 Mille Lacs, which is in timbered lands. At Minnetonka Mills it 

 was seen first on November 15th, and remained in that locality 

 in considerable numbers until about the 20th of April. It re- 

 mains all winter in the vicinity of Thompson and Duluth. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill and legs black; general color carmine-red. not continu- 

 ous above except on the head; the feathers showing brownish 

 centers on the back, where the red is darker. Loral region, 

 base of lower jaw all round, sides and posterior part of body, 

 and under tail coverts, ashy, whitest behind. Wing with two 

 white bands across the tips of the greater and middle coverts; 

 outer edges of quills also white, broadest on the tertiaries. 



Length, 8.50; wing, 4.50; tail, 4. 



Habitat, northern x^ortions of northern hemisiihere. 



CARPODACUS PLRPIREUS (Gmelin). (517.) 

 PURPLE FINCH. 



In all my ramblings with gun, rod, and note-book, up to the 

 26th of November, 1869, I failed to discover the Purple Finch, 

 and had about arrived at the conclusion that I should never 

 bring him to my list, when, on that day I discovered a flock of 

 about 20. I was in the depth of the great deciduous forest 

 unromantically called the Big Woods, about thirty milvis west 

 of Minneapolis, in special pursuit of ruffed grouse which were 

 then very plenty in that section, when I was surprised and de- 

 lighted at hearing the characteristic "chink" high above me 

 from many throats, and soon discovered its source. They were 

 in the extreme top of the tallest hard maples that abound there, 

 and could only be identified with my ever-ready field glass. It 

 did not take long to seal my discovery by having several in 

 both mature and immature plumage to deposit in my collecting 

 basket. Since that time it has come to be almost a common 

 spring and fall visitor, indeed, resident in the north part of 

 the State, where it bveeds abundantly. Its nest has been re- 

 ported to me as found in the section where I first saw it, but I 



