FRIXGILLIDJi— THK i'liNCHES. 46<J 



surpasses it in sweetness. Its beautiful jiluinage also renders it still more 

 attractive. The peculiarly soil and nuusical iwcct of this bird is also very 

 similar to that of the Canary, and is very difl'erent from the common note of 

 tlie I'urple Finch. Tliis bin! breeds very numerously among the sliade-trees 

 in the streets of Sacramento, as well as aniung the oak groves on the o\it- 

 skirts of that city. The males are very shy, but the females, wlien their nest 

 is disturbed, keep up a lively chirping in an adjoining tree. The nest is gen- 

 erally situated near the e.x.tremity of a horizontal branch of a small oak, 

 usually in a grove, occasionally in an isolated tree. In one instance it made 

 use of an abandoned nest of a Bullock's Oriole, and in another of that of a 

 Cliff Swallow. 



Dr. Cooper speaks of this bird as Ijeing especially almndant in all tlie 

 southern portions of California, and also, according to Dr. Xewberry, through- 

 out all the valleys northward into Oregon. It is a species tliat is every- 

 where peculiar to the valleys, wliile tlie others of this genus are ecpially 

 confined to the wooded mountains. Dr. Cooper also met with this species 

 in the plains near the coast, where there are no plants higher than the wild 

 mustard, on the seeds of which they feed. They also fre(]^uent the groves 

 and the open forests on the summits of the coast range, but in small num- 

 bers, in company with the C. californinis. They at times feed on buds of 

 trees, and seeds of the cottonwood and other plants. It is most abundant 

 among ranches and gardens where, Dr. Cooper states, it does much mischief 

 by destroying seeds and young plants, fruit and buds. For these depreda- 

 tions even its cheerful and constant song is not regarded as an adetpiate com- 

 pensation ; and unlike the New-Mexicans in their treatment of its kindred 

 race, the California cultivators wage an unrelenting war upon these birds. 



At San Diego, Dr. Cooper found them building as early as the 15th of 

 jMarch, and even a little earlier. Both the situation and the materials of 

 their nest vary. He has found them nesting in trees, on logs and rocks, on 

 the top rail of a picket fence, inside a window-shutter, in the holes of walls, 

 under tiles, on the thatch of a roof, in barns and haystacks, and even be- 

 tween the interstices in the sticks of which tlie nest of a Hawk had been 

 made, and once in the old nest of an Oriole. About dwellings they always 

 seek the protection of man, and seem to be quite unconscious of having 

 deserved or incurred his enmity. The materials of their nests are usually 

 coarse grasses and weeds, with a lining of hair and fine roots. They raise 

 two, sometimes three, broods in a season, and in the autunni assemble in 

 large flocks, but migrate very little, if any, to the south. 



Dr. Cooper states that their songs arc very different from those of the 

 other sjiecies. They are very varied and very lively, and are heard thrdugh- 

 out the year. They are easily kept as cage-birds, but soon lose the beauty 

 of their plumage in confinement, their bright purple colors changing to a 

 dirty yellow. 



NuttaU did not observe any of this species in Oregon. 



