460 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Purple tints of a darker purplish-rose cast ; first quill shorter than 

 the fourth. Hab. Pacific Province of North America var. cal ifo r ni cus. 

 B. Culmen much curved. Tail and wing feathers edged with grayish in the 

 male. 



3. C. frontalis. ^. A frontal and superciliary band of crimson; a 

 patch of same on the rump, and another on the throat and jugulum ; ab- 

 domen and crissum streaked with dusky. 



^. Red restricted to the portions mentioned above. 



Red of an intense carmine tint, sharply defined, and sti'ictly 

 restricted witliin the limits indicated. Hah. Plateau of Mexico . 



var. h ce in o r r h o u s } 

 Red of a lighter carmine, and with a greater or less tendency 

 to escape its boundaries. Hab. Middle Province of the United 

 States . . . . . . . . var. frontalis. 



^. Red not restricted, but spread over the crown, tingeing the 

 back and other portions, excepting wings and tail. 



Red tint varying from scarlet to wine-red. Hab. Pacific 

 Province of United States, including the peninsula of Lower 

 California ....... var. rlio do colp us. 



Carpodacus cassini, Baird. 



CASSIN'S PURPLE FINCH. 



Carpodacus cassini, Baird, Pr. A. N. S. Philad. VII, June, 1854, 119 ; Birds, N. Am. 1858, 

 414, pi. xxvii, f. 1. — Lord, Pr. R. A. hist, iv, 18t34, 119 (Br. Col. between Rocky 

 Mts. and Cascades). — Kennerly, P. R. R. X, pi. xxvii, f. 1. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 

 l,o5. 



Sp. Char. Larger than C. pnrpureus. Bill, .55 of an inch above. Second and third 

 quills longest ; first longer than fourth. Male. Above pale grayish-brown, the feathers 

 streaked with darker brown, and with only an occasional gloss of reddish, except on the 

 crown, which is uniform deep crimson, and on the rump. Sides of the head and neck, 

 throat, and upper part of breast with rump, pale rose-color ; rest of under parts white, 

 very faintly and sparsely streaked with brown. Female without any red, and streaked on 

 the head and under parts with brown. Length, 6.50 ; wing, 3.60 ; tail, 2.60. 



Hab. Mountainous regions of Middle Province of United States, from Rocky Moun- 

 tains to Sierra Nevada. British Columbia (Lord). City of Mexico (Sclater & Salvin, 

 1869, 362). Breeds in pine region of Mt. Orizaba. 



This species, though somewhat resembling C. imrinircm, may be easily 

 distinguished from it by the streaked lower tail-coverts (of both se.xes), and 

 by the pileum being much more intensely red than any other portion in 

 the male. The female resembles more in markings that of frontalis, but 

 has an entirely different shaped bill, and is mucli larger ; the streaks above 

 very conspicuous, instead of nearly obsolete. The side of the head lacks 

 the conspicuous light and dark longitudinal areas observable in jyurpureus. 



The young of both sexes resemble the adult female, but the streaks are 



1 Carpodacus frontalis, var. ha;morrhous, Carpodacus lucmorrhous, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 

 304. (Fringilla hcemorrhous, Light. Verz. 1831.) 



