478 LAND BIRDS 
flocks separate, each pair going to its chosen nesting site 
in the furry hemlocks, and house-building begins. Both 
sexes carry material and weave the walls of the home, 
which is well hidden and securely fastened among the 
thick branches. It is very difficult to diseover even when 
you have located the tree, and the birds themselves, al- 
though not shy, are wary about disclosing this secret. 
So the bird-lover must be content with lying under the 
hemlocks and watching the pretty rose-colored male carry- 
ing food to his mate through the days of incubation ; and 
listening to his liquid trilling, as the setting sun tinges 
his breast with a deeper rose, or as at four A. M. he greets 
another blue day. He makes a welcome bit of color in 
the sombre woods, and delicious music in their silence. 
Unless you hear his rival, the Townsend solitaire, who 
frequents much the same haunts, you are quite ready to 
call him the musician of the mountain tops. 
517 a. CALIFORNIA PURPLE FINCH. — Carpodacus 
purpureus californicus. 
Famity : The Finches, Sparrows, ete. 
Length : 5.50-6.25. 
Adult Male: Upper parts dark madder-pink, clear on rump, deeper and 
brighter on top of head; back streaked with dusky ; middle of belly 
and lower tail-coverts white; remainder of under parts light rose- 
pink with sides and flanks strongly tinged with brownish and streaked 
with darker. 
Adult Female: Upper parts grayish olive, heavily streaked with brown ; 
under parts ashy white, finely streaked ; sides of head with two dis- 
tinct brownish stripes, one on ear-coverts, the other on each side of 
throat, — the two separated by a whitish stripe. 
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