EASTERN PURPLE FINCH 265 



the controlling factor is more likely to be the availability of suitable 

 nesting trees rather than the house sparrow. 



Spring. — Wells W. Cooke (1914) makes the following interesting 

 observation. 



The great bulk of the individuals winter south of the breeding range, but a small 

 percentage remain at this season, farther north in the southern part of the breed- 

 ing range, and sometimes even to the middle part. There is therefore a broad 

 belt, covering at least a third of the entire range of the species, in which migra- 

 tion dates are unsatisfactory, because the records of real spring migration are so 

 mixed with notes on birds that have wintered. The case is made more involved 

 by the fact that the Purple Finch is normally a late migrant, so that there are, in 

 reality, two sets of notes, one of birds that have wintered unnoticed in the deep 

 woods and are recorded when they spread to the open country during the first 

 warm days of spring, and the other of migrants from the south that arrive two 

 to six weeks later. 



As Cooke implies, the spring migration is later than one might 

 suppose. In Pennsylvania (Groskin, 1950) it is in March and April; 

 in eastern Massachusetts, in April and May. While there is cer- 

 tainly a generally northward movement, it is questionable as to what 

 extent migrating finches set even a roughly true north course. The 

 data presented by Groskin (1950) show a northwestward course 

 toward Michigan and a northeastward one into New England from 

 his station in southeast Pennsylvania; northward recaptures of his 

 banded birds were few and the distances mostly less than 100 miles. 

 He was also able to show that an occasional bird makes a fairly long 

 southward trip in spring. 



Courtship. — Much has been written about the ecstatic and colorful 

 courtship display of the purple finch. One of the best accounts of it 

 is in the following note sent to me by Kenneth C. Parkes, who ob- 

 served the performance at Ithaca, N.Y., at 5:30 a.m., dayhght saving 

 time, on May 19, 1940: 



"When I first approached the pair, the male bird was hopping 

 around with dangling wings and thi'own-up chest, much in the fashion 

 of the male house sparrow. The female was feeding on the grass 

 nearby, not paying the least bit of attention to the male. His wings 

 beat faster and faster until quite blurred. His tail was cocked up in 

 the air like that of a wren. All this time he was chippering softly. 

 Finally, with wings beating seemingly fully as fast as those of a hum- 

 mingbird, he rose a foot or so straight up in the air. 



"The female flew over at this point, and the male came down 

 directly on top of her, although she immediately slipped out from 

 under him. The male leaned over backward at an almost impossible 

 angle, with his Avings dangling against the ground and his bill pointed 

 straight up in the air. The female gave a little jump and hit the 

 male's bill with hers. Both birds immediately flew into the branches 



