THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Ivlagazine of Poptalar Ornithology. 

 P6hlis})e(i [Vlontljly €x,eepi ii) Jaly and Aagast. 



V01.UMK III. 



OCTOBER, 1898. 



NUMBBR 2. 



Original Articles. 



INCIDENTS IN THE LIVES OF PURPLE FINCHES. 



By Mrs. C. P. Webster, Franklin Falls, N. H. 



U "P)URPLE" Finch is a misleading name that 

 p became applied to this bird, not because his 



-^ feathers were purple, but becau.se one of the 

 early bird arti-ts falsely colored him. 



For the fir.st year or more, the brothers and sisters 

 in the Purple Finch family are dressed alike in 

 mixed brown; after which time the young gentlemen 

 don a criuHon garment that makes them truly con- 

 spicuous among featliered folk. They may well be 

 proud of their brilliant plumage and seek to display 

 it to best advantage, when they "a-wooing sro." At 

 .such limes they erect their head feathers, spread and 

 trail their wings, stretch their leg.s, strut as if on tip- 

 toe, and Hy back and forth before the objects of their 

 atfections with love songs bubbling from their 

 throats. The lady birds are the most demure, un- 

 demonstrative little dames one ever saw. They ap- 

 parently pay not the slightest attention to their love- 

 sick swains, but either sit Huffed up on a branch 

 looking neither to right nor left, or continue to fill 

 their stomachs as if they expected to provide their 

 own living always, married or single. 



Mr. N'ehrling says. "It is extremely hard to tind 

 the nest of the Purple Finch in the dense evergreens, 

 the bird taking great care not to betray the loca- 

 tion." Fortune favored me in not only finding the 

 nest but in being able to watch its construction. It 

 was composed of rootlets and grasses, neatly lineil 

 with horse hair, ami placed in an evergreen close to 

 a neighbor's sidewalk, only six feet above ground. 

 f The carmine coateil gentleman did not carry a twig 

 — not he! But he accompanied his mate, carefully 

 watched to see that every jiiece she brought was 

 properly placed, and helped drive oti' trespassers 

 that tried to steal dried grass or rootlets from the 

 roadside where theirs were gathered. 



The nest was completed in four days; on the fifth 

 one egg wius deposited, and tlien one each succeed- 

 ing day until four were laid. They were pale green- 

 ish, spotted with dark markings, particularly at the 

 larger en<l. 



Sitting began at once and the female was so fear- 

 less one could go directly to the tree where .she sat, 

 look at her — even pull the tree a trifie to one side — 

 and she would not lly, until her great fright eight 

 days after silting began. That day of terror com- 

 menced with tile pruning of the evergreens on the 

 lawn — her tree included. This caused her great 

 anxiety and distress, but the shearer finally passed 

 on and she returned to her duty. After the trees 

 were made symmetrical, the lawn was mowed, the 

 walks straiglitened, the grass reclipped on theii' 

 borders and the concrete carefully swept. All this 

 work, which lasted from early morning until late at 



night, necessitated the laborer's passing the Finch's 

 tree many times, until she became so nervous she 

 fiew when any one stopped near. 



About this time, too, the bird passed through a 

 domestic experience. Her brilliant companion dis- 

 appeared; so this practical woman in feathers, having 

 decided it was too hard to bring up four children 

 alone, put aside widow's weeds and took to herself 

 another husband, a young man without so much aa 

 a crim.son feather for a button-hole bouquet. He 

 took up the vacated station of her former partner 

 and brought her food occa.sionally, presumably per- 

 forming the usual duties of a lonl of a household. 



The eleventh day after the fourth egg was laid, the 

 birdlings came out of their shells. Nothing uncom- 

 mon occurred until the fourth day later; then a 

 tragedy took place which resulted in death to the 

 mother bird and three nestlings. I suppose the 

 murderer to have been a cat, but was not there to 

 see the sad affair. 



Con.sidering that the step-father was young and 

 unused to the care of children, one can scarcely won- 

 der that he did not make a success of raising the 

 lonely fledgeling. He went to it a few times and 

 probably fed it, but he never stopped to cover the 

 callow thing — that was more than he had bargained 

 for, so the step-child died liefore the day was done. 



This lost opportunity to watch home training in a 

 Purple Finch's family was partly made up to me a 

 little later, when a "beautiful male brought his off- 

 spring to our yard to teach them how to sing. Fath- 

 er Finch sang his complete song over and over again: 

 "Ah, twitter-witter-witter-witter tvee-ah, twitterwit- 

 ter-witter, ah, sweet?" the "twee" being the highest 

 and the "sweet," in rising inflection, the sweetest 

 note. The Finch's song gives you the idea that he 

 is so brimming full of happy emotions he fairly spills 

 over. 



The young birds entered upon their musical stud- ■ 

 ies with ardor. No young cockerel ever practiced 

 his crow more energetically than did they their little 

 song. They sang with raised crests and nervous 

 steps bac-k and forward. Were they keeping t;me to 

 the music? The song had none of the gush and 

 bubble of a mature Finch's, was on a lower key, and 

 failed utterly in reaching the one high note. They 

 seemed to know this and try for it l)ut they lacked 

 sufhcient control over their vocal apparatus. Their 

 song, repeated again and again, waslike this: "twit- 

 ter-twee, twit-ter-twee." 



In a day or two, one young bird added a third 

 "twit-tertwee," a repetition of the .second phrase, 

 and in a few days more these engaging songsters left 

 our vicinity. 



