22 



THE MUSEUM. 



While the CaHfornia Purple Finch 

 does breed in at least one of the seven 

 southern counties of California, never- 

 theless it is not at all common below 

 the thirty-sixth parallel. From that 

 locality northward to the Columbia 

 River and perhaps to Vancouver's Is- 

 land is the favorite breeding range. 

 Here it finds suitable nesting sites in 

 the coniferous forests which clothe the 

 higher hills and mountains and seems 

 to prefer regions further from the 

 "busy haunts of men" than do either 

 of the other two. 



This is the most beautiful of our 

 Carpodaci. The whole upper part of 

 the body is crimson, perhaps a little 

 brighter on the head shading almost to 

 purple across the lower back and 

 greater wing coverts. Below, this 

 crimson extends over the greater part 

 of the breast, sometimes even to the 

 tibiff . The belly, as is common with 

 the Fringillidas, varies from gray to 

 pure white. The female is usually 

 slightly smaller and is clothed in a 

 neat brown suit with "a very light 

 superciliary stripe. " Regarding their 

 food and general history I still have 

 much to learn; but I have seen them 

 feeding on the seeds of the so-called 

 "Wild Sunflower," in company with 

 Cassin's and the House Finch. Their 

 song is rather more interesting than 

 pleasing: although during the breeding 

 season I have heard quite a consider- 

 able "rondeau" rendered from the top 

 of some tall willow or cypress. One 

 pair in particular stayed throughout 

 the whole winter of 1897-8 in two 

 large cypress trees in our yard. I 

 have often spent a half-hour vainly 

 searching for some hidden warbler 

 whose song I could plainly hear and 

 at length come upon little piirpui-cus, 

 the source of all the music. 



I took but one set of this species 

 this season. For some unaccountable 

 reason they were much scarcer this 

 year than last while Cassin's bird was 

 correspondingly more plenty. Tl^'^ 

 nest held four slightly incubated c:;,,, 

 pale bhiish-green in color, spdr.d 



with brown and black. The set was 

 not typical although the date — May 

 21 — was just at the height of their 

 breeding season. The nest, placed in 

 a Eucalyptus tree twenty feet up, was 

 woven from weed stems, small twigs, 

 grasses; etc I do not have the nest 

 at hand but think it was fairly typical. 

 Usually the eggs are deep greenish- 

 blue very sparingly spotted with brown, 

 lavender and black. Most authors 

 say that lines are characteristic of the 

 typical eggs of the House Finch, while 

 spots and blotches distinguish the oth- 

 er two species of this genus. This has 

 not been my experience; I have sever- 

 al sets of Cassin's Finch which do not 

 differ at all from a large series of C. 

 nicxicanus frontalis. The difference 

 between the eggs of C. cassini and C. 

 califoriiicus seems to be chiefly in 

 shading and ground-color. While the 

 former is the larger bird, still the eggs 

 are nearly the same size. A large ser- 

 ies of C. purpurcus californicus gives 

 an average measurement of .57X. 74 

 inches, while a series of Cassin's aver- 

 ages .58x79. I think the egg of the 

 California Purple Finch is the more 

 round in outline, and Cassin's the 

 more pointed oval, somewhat similar 

 to the egg of the House Finch. 



My experience and notes on the 

 second species have been confined to 

 the past two years in this (Orange) 

 county. It is a much paler species 

 than the first and consequently less 

 noticeable. The upper parts are usu- 

 ally grayish-brown, with some irregu- 

 lar black-brown markings. The crim- 

 son of the head and rump sometimes, 

 though rarely extends down the breast 

 and a slight reddish tinge is occasion- 

 ally found on the wing coverts. This 

 bird is seldom over one-half inch larg- 

 er all around than the preceeding and 

 usually not over one-fourth. 



I have found them nesting in nearly 

 every variety of tree indigenous to 

 Southern California, but thc\- s^em to 

 picfer 'a tall willow tree, especially 

 one in v, ! h the l^mbs are large and 

 so situated that the nest may be plac- 



