116 



KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



olive-yellow on head, breast, and upper tail coverts. On its 

 somewliat rare winter visits to the northern United States, it 

 comes in flocks, and can usually be found on the sumachs and 



mountain ashes, eating 

 the berries. 



Length, 8 J ; wing, 4^ 

 (4J-0); tail, 3J ; tarsus, j ; 

 culmen, y^. Northern parts 

 of the northern hemisphere ; 

 breeding from northern New 

 England northward, and 

 wintering irregularly south- 

 ward into the northeastern 

 states. 



3. Purple Finch (517. 

 Carpodttciis jxirjjiireus). 

 — A common, small, 

 rosj' - red - bodied bird, 

 with brownish wings 

 and tail, and whitish 

 belly. The rosy red 

 is brighter on the head, 

 breast, and rump. The female is very much like a streaky, 

 grayish-brown sparrow, having white under parts marked with 

 many spots and streaks of dark brown. The female is some- 

 what difficult to determine, but the forked tail an inch shorter 

 than the wings, and the tufts of feathers over the nostrils 

 of the stout bill, distinguish it from all other birds. 



Length, G ; wing. 3\ (3-3J), tail, 2\ ; culmen, |. North America from 

 the Plains eastward ; breeding from New England northward (farther 

 south in the mnuntains), and wintering in the Middle and Southern States. 

 The House Finch Coin. CarpMacus vuxicanus frontalis) of Colorado, 

 western Texas to California, is similar in size and coloring to the purple 

 findi but the tail is about square at tip. Both of these are excellent 

 singers. The hovLse finch is as common in the southern towns west of 

 the Kocky Mountains as the English .sparrow is in the towns east of them. 



4. American Crossbill (521. Ldxia curvirdstra mhior). — A 

 climbing, dull-red-bodied, small bird with blackish wings and 



Pine Grosbeak 



