Conspicuously Red of any Shade 



tic, and from Mexico northward to Manitoba. Most com- 

 mon in Middle States and New England. Winters south of 

 Pennsylvania. 

 Migrations — March. November. Common summer resident. 

 Rarely individuals winter at the north. 



In this "much be-sparrowed country" of ours familiarity is 

 apt to breed contempt for any bird that looks sparrowy, in which 

 case one of the most delicious songsters we have might easily be 

 overlooked. It is not until the purple finch reaches maturity in 

 his second year that his plumage takes on the raspberry-red tints 

 that some ornithologists named purple. Oriental purple is our 

 magenta, it is true, but not a raspberry shade. Before maturity, 

 but for the yellow on his lower back and throat, he and his 

 mate alike suggest a song-sparrow; and it is important to note 

 their particularly heavy, rounded bills, with the tufts of feathers 

 at the base, and their forked tails, to name them correctly. But 

 the identification of the purple finch, after all, depends quite as 

 much upon his song as his color. In March, when flocks of 

 these birds come north, he has begun to sing a little ; by the be- 

 ginning of May he is desperately in love, and sudden, joyous 

 peals of music from the elm or evergreen trees on the lawn en- 

 liven the garden. How could his little brown lady-love fail to 

 be impressed with a suitor so gayly dressed, so tender and solici- 

 tous, so deliciously sweet- voiced .^ With fuller, richer song 

 than the warbling vireo's, which Nuttall has said it resembles, a 

 perfect ecstasy of love pours incessantly from his throat during 

 the early summer days. There is a suggestion of the robin's 

 love-song in his, but its copiousness, variety, and rapidity give 

 it a character all its own. 



In some old, neglected hedge or low tree about the country- 

 place a flat, grassy nest, lined with horsehair, contains four or 

 five green eggs in June, and the old birds are devotion itself to 

 each other, and soon to their young, sparrowy brood. 



But when parental duties are over, the finches leave our 

 lawns and gardens to join flocks of their own kind in more re- 

 mote orchards or woods, their favorite haunts. Their subdued 

 warble may be heard during October and later, as if the birds 

 were humming to themselves. 



Much is said of their fondness for fruit blossoms and tree 

 buds, but the truth is that noxious insects and seeds of grain 



224 



