144 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 233 



which came to a feeding shelf with an adult male grosbeak ; the fledgling 

 was fed repeatedly by the latter. As yet, no nest of the evening grosbeak 

 has been found with eggs or j^oung of the parasite; for this reason 

 it cannot be said with certainty that the cowbird in question actually 

 was reared by the apparent fosterer, but the indication that it was 

 is very strong. The record refers to the nominate race of both 

 victim and parasite. 



Purple Finch 



Carpodacus purpureus (Gmelin) 



The purple finch is a very uncommon victim of the brown-headed 

 cowbird. Eighteen records have been noted, distributed among the 

 following areas: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec in Canada; 

 California, Washington, Michigan, Connecticut, New York, and 

 Rhode Island in the United States. In California, Washington, 

 Alberta, and Saskatchewan the parasite is the race artemisiae; else- 

 where, ii is the eastern race ater. In all cases the nominate race of 

 the victim is involved. 



Sage and Bishop (1913, p. 110) record two nests in Connecticut, 

 each with a cowbird's egg. In addition to this there is another Con- 

 necticut record, a nest with 3 cowbird eggs and 4 of the host, listed 

 by Hoffman (1881, p. 53). Still another parasitized nest from the 

 same state was taken near New London on May 26, 1887, by C. L. 

 Rawson and later was incorporated into the J. P. Norris collection. 

 Nearby, in Rhode Island, two more cases were found, one at Warwick 

 on June 13, 1882, and one at Cranston on May 30, 1902; both sets of 

 eggs are now in the C. E. Doe collection in the Florida State Museum. 

 Several cases have been noted in New York, of which two may be 

 mentioned: at Ithaca, Alberger (1890, p. 46) recorded a parasitized 

 nest; at Mayville, Kibbe (1892, pp. 133-134) found another on 

 June 8, 1892. 



Mr. T. E. Randall informed me that he had found three instances 

 of cowbird parasitism on the purple finch in Alberta. Street (Houston 

 and Street, 1959, p. 176) reported this finch as a cowbird host in Sas- 

 katchewan. The lone Washington record (from the files of the British 

 Columbia Nest Records Scheme, Univ. of B.C.) is a nest containing 

 3 eggs of the finch and 1 of the cowbird, found two miles south of 

 Orrondo, Douglas County, on June 25, 1959. This record was sent 

 to me with a note that the observer (name not given) was not entirely 

 certain as to the identity of the host but considered it to be a purple 

 finch. In southern Quebec, a single case was reported by Terrill 

 (1961, p. 9); an earher one had been recorded by Lloyd (1944, p. 172) 

 from Hull on May 28, 1899. The National Museum of Canada has 

 a parasitized set, taken at Hull, by A. R. Legge on May 28, 1897. 

 This may be the same one mentioned by Llo3^d. In the collections of 



