FPJNGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 



461 



Carpoiiacus frontalis. 



Tlie sono- of these birds. 



less sharply defined, and tlie wing-feathers are broadly edged witli light 

 earth-brown. 



In autumn and winter, as in all the other species, the red tints are softer 

 and more purplish than in spring and summer. 



Habits. Cassin's Purple Finch is the largest of the American birds of 

 this genus, and is not only conspicuously 

 different from all in size, but also in other 

 respects. It is found between the great Cen- 

 tral Plains and the coast range of mountains, 

 being one of the common Ijirds of Colorado, 

 Utah, Xevada, and Eastern California. Dr. 

 Cooper found these birds in large numbers 

 about Lake Tahoe in California. They were 

 all in tlieir brown plumage, and seemed so 

 much like tlie C. californicus in their habits ■ 

 that he mistook them for that species. He 

 noticed in them a very peculiar call-note as 

 they flew, reminding him of that of Pyranga, 

 and quite dift'erent from the other Carpodaci. 

 as he afterwards heard it, was much louder and finer than that of C. cali- 

 fornicus, and more original in style. He is not familiar with their other 

 habits, and has never met with them in the Colorado Valley. They have 

 been procured from Fort Thorne, Pueblo Creek, and Alberquerque, Xew 

 Mexico. Mr. Eidgway met with these birds in the Wahsatch Mountains, 

 June 26, 1869, in Parley's Park, Utah, where he found them breeding. 

 Their nest M'as in the top of a cottonwood-tree near the canon stream, about 

 forty feet from the ground. It is a soft homogeneous structure, flattened in 

 shape, and with only a slight depression. It is composed principally of roots 

 and twigs, lined with softer materials of the same, interspersed with moss, 

 cotton, and other soft substances. It is two inches in height with a width 

 of four and a half inches. The cavity is about an inch deep. 



In his Eeport on the birds of Mr. King's survey, Mr. Pidgway states that 

 he found this Linnet in tlie greatest abundance among the pines of the Sierra 

 Xevada, near Carson City. It was next seen among the cedars and nut-pines 

 of the East Humboldt Mountains, and again in the pine woods and cotton- 

 wood-trees along the streams on the Wahsatch Mountains. It breeds in all 

 these localities, and is in its habits essentially, though not exclusively, resi- 

 dent among the pines. March 21, 1868, Mr. Eidgway observed flocks of 

 these birds near Carson City. They were found in every portion of the 

 w^oods, feeding among the branches of the pine-trees. They were all in full 

 song, the females as well as the males. A week later he again found them 

 common among the isolated pines in the fields at the foot of the Sierras, 

 alighting on the trees in companies. Their notes resemble the song of the C. 

 piirpuTcus, but are finer and more musical. They have a great resemblance 



