PURPLE FINCH. Ts 
Now and then you catch a sweet liquid note, 
but for the most part his song is only a bright 
warble, without beginning or end. The song 
sparrow, you know, begins, strikes his upper note 
three times, and then runs down the scale, finish- 
ing off usually with a little flourish ; but the pur- 
ple finch seems to sing in circles, without much 
musical sense — nothing but a general feeling 
_that the sun is warm and bright, and there are 
plenty of buds and seeds to be found near by. 
Thoreau puts the song in syllables as — a-twitter- 
witter-witter-wee, a-witter-witter-wee. 
The song is at its best when our pretty finch is 
in love. Then it has more expression and sweet- 
ness and resembles the whisper song of the robin. 
And when he bows and dances before the little 
brown lady he is trying to win for his bride, his 
pretty magenta head and back, his rosy throat 
and white breast, with his graceful ways and ten- 
der song, make him an attractive suitor. The 
brown-streaked, sparrowy-looking little creature 
who seems to ignore him at first, can scarcely help 
feeling flattered by the devotion of such a hand- 
some cavalier, and you feel sure that his wooing 
will come to a happy end. 
Like the waxwings, bobolinks, white-throated 
sparrows, blue jays, goldfinches, and swifts, ex- 
cept in the nesting season, the purple finches are 
generally found in flocks, their favorite haunts 
being woods and orchards. 
