LINNET 425 



California Linnet. Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis (Say) 



Field characters. — Size of a Junco (length 5i/^ inches) ; only slightly smaller than 

 California Purple Finch j tail practically square-ended (fig. 50&). Wings and tail brown 

 with no white or yellow markings. Male: Head (except crown), whole fore part of 

 body, and rump, bright red; belly dull whitish, streaked sharply with brown. Female: 

 Brown, entirely lacking either red or any tinge of green; whole under surface of body 

 streaked with brown on a clayey white ground. (See pi. 7e, /.) Flight markedly 

 undulating. Voice: Male has a prolonged and varied, bubbling song, to be heard at 

 almost any time of year except in late summer and fall; both sexes utter a pleasing 

 call note which has a rising inflection, che-eep. 



Occurrence. — Common resident of lowlands and foothills (Lower and Upper Sonoran 

 zones) on west side of Sierra Nevada, from Snelling and Lagrange eastward to 6 miles 

 east of Coulterville, to El Portal, and to Mount Bullion. Rare in Yosemite Valley. 

 Common east of the mountains, in vicinity of Mono Lake. Usually in flocks except 

 during nesting season, when in attentive pairs or family groups. 



The California Linnet or House Finch is, in California, the lowland 

 counterpart of the purple finches. Because of its greater abundance and 

 its occurrence in settled districts it is more widely known than its mountain- 

 dwelling relatives. In the Yosemite section it is abundant in the western 

 valleys and foothills and is found also in smaller numbers beyond the 

 mountains, about Mono Lake. In spring when attending to the rearing 

 of their broods the birds are to be seen in pairs or family parties, but later 

 in the year after the young are abroad, adults and immatures join in 

 flocks often of large size and forage together in fields, gardens, and orchards 

 as well as on various sorts of wild land where seeds of such plants as 

 sunflower and thistle abound. 



The red coloration of the male linnet is of a brighter hue than that of 

 the male of either of the purple finches, but this color does not in the 

 present species cover the whole crown of the head. The under part of 

 the male linnet's body is streaked, while in the purple finches it is plain. 

 (See pi. 7.) The female linnet lacks any tint of green, it is narrowly 

 streaked beneath, and the ground color of the lower surface is tinged with 

 clay color or ocher. From either of the purple finches the linnet may 

 be distinguished from beneath by its square-ended instead of emarginate 

 tail (fig. 50). 



It is a well-known fact that the red areas on the male linnet in fall 

 are dull, and that the color gradually increases in brilliancy as the season 

 progresses. Attempts to explain this transition as a change of color 

 without molt involved much speculation on the part of naturalists two 

 or three decades ago. It is now known that the change is entirely the 

 result of the mechanical process of wear. In new plumage the red feathers 

 are tipped and faced with minute structural elements which are white. 

 As these parts are gradually worn off, the red is unmasked and thereby 



