310 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



variations; in fact, but rarely do you hear two songs that are exactly 

 ahke. Different individuals will sing slightly differently, and the 

 same bird will vary his song from time to time, but the song always 

 has the same basic structure, is rather consistently given in 6/8 time, 

 and all of the songs share the same general quaUty." 



To the casual observer the notes of the house finch are not im- 

 pressive in their variety, but Bergtold's (1913) account indicates 

 that this apparent limitation of expression may be attributable rather 

 to a lack of acuteness or attention on the part of the listener: 



* * * During the cold months the birds are comparatively silent but they 

 frequently break into song on bright sunny winter days. * * * From the middle 

 of January onward, the singing increases with the lengthening days * * * . 



* * * There is a distinct and recognizable difference in the alarm note over 

 the sight of a dog or a cat if it be near the drinking place, and the alarm when 

 one examines the nest. The writer has learned to know when the young are 

 ready to leave the nest by the peculiar coaxing notes of the old birds. During 

 nest building, the male often feeds his busy mate, as he would a young bird, and 

 at such times the notes uttered by the female are peculiar to this part of the 

 nesting habits. During August and September the song is at ebb, but starts 

 afresh, on a subdued scale, in October. 



Aretas A. Saunders says of the species as it sings in the Eastern 

 United States: "The following notes were obtained from a single 

 individual that appeared in Canaan, Conn., in June 1954: 



"The song is bright, rapid, extremely musical, consisting of series of 

 rapid notes, with slurred notes before or between the series. An example 

 might be written phonetically as tayo tdtdtdtd tdyo titUUi teeeyotUit. 

 The number of short notes in the series varied from 2 to 10, but was 

 most frequently 4. The pitch varied from De to Ag, the slurred notes 

 mainly downward from 1% to 2)^ tones. 



"A call note recorded I wrote as queet. It was pitched on Ag." 



Field marks. — In the valleys of California very few species of 

 birds have red in the plumage; there the male linnet is usually 

 recognized at a glance. In none of its range, in fact, is it hkely to be 

 confused with any birds other than the purple finches of the same 

 genus. From them it differs in its normally brighter and less pur- 

 plish shade of red, the red areas being rather more restricted and more 

 sharply defined, with no suffusion of red over the remaining plumage. 

 Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says: The darker gray of the female Purple 

 Finch and the dark patch on the cheek bordered above by a light 

 hne distinguish her from the female House Finch. The absence of 

 marked streaking on the flanks and the deeply notched tail distin- 

 guish the male Purple Finch from the male Linnet." This species 

 is also noticeably more slender than the purple finches. From most 

 of the streaked, brownish sparrows the female can be distinguished 

 by the heavy, convex bill and the rather broad and comparatively 



