274 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paht i 



"The chief season of singing in this species lasts from late February 

 or early March to July. There is occasional singing in October or 

 early November. 



"The call note of this bird is a short, sharp tip or tick. A young 

 bird, out of the nest and calling for food, used a two-note phrase 

 that sounded like yo wee, the second note two and one-half tones 

 higher than the first." 



Francis H. Allen writes to me: "I have records of several unusual 

 purple finch songs. Perhaps the strangest of them was heard in West 

 Roxbury, Mass., May 9, 1939. It seemed to be a medley of goldfinch 

 song-notes with a recurrent imitation of the towhee's call, usually 

 followed by a high-pitched trill suggesting the trill in the towhee's 

 song but very rapid and beady in quality, and with a long, high- 

 pitched, even note that suggested the cowbird." 



Field marks. — The adult male purple finch is easily recognized by 

 its color; no other sparrowlike bird of that size is similarly colored in 

 rosy crimson. The female is marked more like a sparrow, but its 

 markings are more like stripes, its bill is much heavier, and its taU is 

 sharply emarginate. The immature male resembles the female. 



Enemies. — Man is, or rather was, one of the worst enemies of this 

 fine bird; in my boyhood days, it was easy to trap all the purple finches 

 in the neighborhood in cagetraps baited with a singing male ; in those 

 days, there was considerable trafiic in trapped cagebirds, and these 

 "linnets" made most attractive ones; but, happily, this traffic has 

 now been stopped, in this country at least. 



Evidently, the purple finch is not very often imposed upon by the 

 cowbird. Friedmann (1929) says: "This species is occasionally im- 

 posed upon by the Cowbird, there being several cases on record. * * * 



"As many as four eggs of the Cowbird have been found in a single 

 nest of this bird together with seven of the owner." 



Considerable has been published on the longevity of purple finches, 

 based on the records of birdbanders. WhUe the hfespan of the species 

 apparently does not average more than 3 or 4 j^ears, many individuals 

 have managed to escape their enemies for 6 or 7 years, and a few have 

 hved to be 8 or even 10 years old. 



Fall. — The fall migrations of purple finches are somewhat erratic 

 and irregular, varying in du'ection and extent. M. J. Magee (1924) 

 writes from Michigan: "In the fall there is a tendency for the sexes to 

 flock separately. Several times late in the fall flocks of from twenty 

 to thirty, all crimson males, have dropped in for from a few hours to 

 a day or two and then moved on. The following is from my 1922 

 notes: 'Have not had a crimson male at house from Aug. 23 to 

 Oct. 4,' and my banding records show that after Aug. 7 I banded no 

 crimson males although I trapped and banded 111 birds." 



