FAMILY Fringillide. 
Purple Finch This Finch is the first bird of importance 
nee as a singer in the family to which he he- 
Carpodacus 
Perens lonys. I have no knowledge whatever of 
L. 6.20 inches the song of the splendidly colored Pine 
Aprili2th, or Grosbeak, a distinctive northern and win- 
an the were ter bird which occasionally visits Campton 
in mid-winter, and very little of the warbling song of the 
Evening Grosbeak, a Mississippi Valley bird. In order, 
these two species come before the Purple Finch. The 
latter songster is the most perfect and lovely warbler we 
have. The term warble is unfortunately too indiscrimi- 
nate in its application to the song of a bird, and it needs 
the clear definition which I have endeavored to give in 
the pages which follow. Also the term purple is an un- 
fortunate color description which, at the very best, is ab- 
solutely misleading. I knowof no North American bird 
which possesses a single purple feather ! * 
The Purple Finch is not purple, his colors are those of 
a Song Sparrow suffused with crimson to a greater or 
less degree. Head, breast, and lower back strongly tinged 
with crimson, that color fading to a faint tint, almost 
white, on the lower parts; back, madder or crimson 
brown; wings and tail sepia brown, the edges of the 
feathers light crimson, the tail distinctly forked. The 
female lacks the crimson tinge and has the appearance 
of a brown Sparrow with gray markings. The bill of 
this Finch is remarkably stout, and of a brownish horn- 
color; over its base are a few fine feather-tufts. The 
nest, built of rootlets and grasses, is generally in an 
ever-green tree, and on a horizontal branch from ten to 
thirty feet above the ground. Egg light greenish blue, 
spotted with sepia at the larger end. The range of the 
* Purple, nowadays, is considered almost a violet; it is simply 
violet leaning toward crimson. What the ornithologist means by 
purple is crimson ; the botanist makes the same mistake, his purple 
flower is usually crimson or magenta. Both scientists use the term 
with its classic significance, precisely as it is used in King James’s 
version of the Scriptures. The men clothed in ‘‘ purple and fine 
linen”? wore crimson and white garments. There is no excuse for 
employing obsolete words with obscure meanings in these iatter 
days when accuracy in the statement of fact is considered im- 
perative. 
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