FRINGILLID^ — THE FINCHES. 469 



surpasses it in sweetness. Its beautiful plumage also renders it still more 

 attractive. Tlie peculiarly sol't and nnisical iivcd of this bird is also very« 

 similar to that of the (Jaiiary, and is very diffei'ent from the common note of 

 tlie Purple Finch. This bird breeds very numerously among tlie sliade-trecs 

 in the streets of Sacramento, as well as among the oak groves on the out- 

 skirts of that city. The males are very shy, but the females, when their nest 

 is disturbed, keep up a lively chirping in an adjoining tree. The nest is gen- 

 erally situated near the extrennty of a horizontal branch of a small oak, 

 usually in a grove, occasionally in an isolated tree. In one instance it made 

 use of an abandoned nest of a Bullock's Oriole, and in another of that of a 

 Cliff Swallow. 



Dr. Cooper speaks of this bird as being especially abundant in all the 

 southern portions of California, and also, according to Dr. Newberry, through- 

 out, all the valleys northward into (Oregon. It is a species that is every- 

 where peculiar to the valleys, while the others of this genus are equally 

 confined to the wooded mountains. Dr. Cooper also met with this species 

 in the plains near the coast, where there are no plants higher than the wild 

 nuistard, on the seeds of which they feed. They also frecjuent the groves 

 and the open forests on the summits of the coast range, but in small num- 

 l)ers, in company with the C. californicns. Tliey at times feed on buds of 

 trees, and seeds of the cottonwood and other plants. It is most abundant 

 among ranches and gardens where. Dr. Cooper states, it does mucli mischief 

 by destroying seeds and young plants, fruit and buds. For these depreda- 

 tions even its cheerful and constant song is not regarded as an adequate com- 

 pensation ; and uidike the New-Mexicans in their treatment of its kindred 

 race, the California cultivators wage an unrelenting war upon these birds. 



At San Diego, Dr. Cooper found them building as early as the loth of 

 March, and even a little earlier. Both the situation and the materials of 

 their nest vary. He has found them nesting in trees, on logs and rocks, on 

 tlie top rail of a picket fence, inside a. window-shutter, in the holes of walls, 

 inider tiles, on the thatch of a roof, in barns and haystacks, and even be- 

 tween the interstices in the sticks of which the nest of a Hawk had been 

 made, and once in the old nest of an Oriole. About dwellings they always 

 seek the protection of man, and seem to be quite unconscious of having 

 deserved or incurred his enmity. The materials of their nests are usually 

 coarse grasses and weeds, with a lining of hair and fine roots. They raise 

 two, sometimes three, broods in a season, and in the autumn assemble in 

 large flocks, but migrate very little, if any, to the south. 



Dr. Cooper states that their songs are very different from those of the 

 other species. They are very varied and very lively, and are heard througli- 

 out the yeai". The}^ are easily kept as cage-birds, liut soon lose the beauty 

 of their plumage in confinement, their bright i»ur])le colors changing to a 

 dirty yellow. 



Nuttall did not observe any of this species in Oregon. 



