138 THE PURPLE FINCH. 



commenced. Each male faced the female with neck out- 

 stretched and crest raised to its fullest dimensions, and 

 leaned forward far enough to show conspicuously its bright 

 rump, and to aid in this display, spread both wings and 

 tail to the widest extent; and moving, or more properly 

 dancing, up and down, poured forth such a volume of song 

 as I did not think them capable of producing. They kept 

 up this brilliant display of both song and plumage for over 

 a minute, without one second's cessation, continually mov- 

 ing the head and body from side to side, and giving a 

 tremulous, vibratory movement to the wings. Suddenly 

 they stopped, and after a few seconds of restless chirping, 

 one male flew away, and in a short time the other followed, 

 and then the female flew after the latter." 



From the middle of May onward into June you may find 

 the nest of the Purple Finch almost invariably in the thick 

 part of a small evergreen, and near the trunk, most com- 

 monly in the front yard, or in an evergreen hedge set for a 

 wind-brake; for though rather shy on the whole, this species 

 seeks the society of man. The nest is framed with small 

 twigs, fine rootlets and some dried grass, ornamented, per- 

 haps, with a few dried leaves, bunches of moss, or bits of 

 vegetable down; it is lined with the finest of dried grasses 

 and rootlets, or more commonly with hair and fine vege- 

 table fibres. The eggs, generally four, some .75 x -55, are 

 a delicate light-green, finely specked with black, or more 

 coarsely spotted with brown. The Purple Finch breeds here 

 quite commonly. Wintering sparingly in Massachu- 

 setts and the more southern parts of New York, but abund- 

 antly in the Southern States, it comes to us in March, 

 reaching Labrador in the north and the Pacific in the west, 

 and goes southward late in the migratory season. Stearns, 

 therefore, very properly assigns it to the ^'Canadian and 



