PREP OR PLEIN Cid. 19 
Tite PLUMAGE,” ELE. 
The Purple Finch is from five and one-half to six inches in length, 
and his wings, when fully extended, measure from tip to tip, nine inches. 
His bill is of a brownish black above, but lighter beneath. The back is 
streaked with brown, while the wings and tail are of a deeper tint of 
the same color, the feathers being tipped and edged with reddish. A 
narrow band of cream color passes across the forehead ; all the rest of 
the body is of a rich, oleaginous crimson, passing into arose color upon 
the belly, and fading into a dusky white at the vent. 
The livery of the female differs very materially from that of the 
male, just described. The crimson tints of the latter are replaced in the 
former by a brownish-olive color, streaked with dusky and brownish. 
Her breast is of an ashy white or dusky, streaked with cuneiform spots 
of brown, while above and below the eye, appears a rather broad line of 
lighter colored plumage approaching to white. The plumage of the 
young birds of both sexes corresponds very closely to that of the mature 
female, save that in young males the rump and chin are of a bright olive 
yellow, which prevails also to some extent on the wing coverts, while 
the feathers of the tail are edged externally with olive. 
Mr. William Brewster gives the frst plumage of the’ female as fol- 
lows: ‘‘ Above dark brown, shading to lighter on the rump, each feath- 
er edged with light reddish-brown. The forehead and supra-loral line 
streaked with grayish. Under parts dull white, thickly streaked every- 
where, except on crissum and anal region with very dark brown. From 
a specimen in my collection taken at Cambridge, (Mass. ), July 9, 1873. 
Although this bird is in strictly first plumage, it differs scarcely appre- 
