BULLFINCH AND GROSBEAK. 



Ill 



:small numbers, in company with C. calif ornicus, and at 

 times feeds on buds of trees, and seeds of the cotton- 

 wood and other plants. 



"It is principally abundant about ranches and 

 gardens, where it does much mischief by destroying 

 seeds and young plants, fruit, etc., for which depreda- 

 tions even its cheerful and constant song does not com- 

 pensate, and the angry gardener wages unrelenting war 

 against the race. 



"At 'San Diego they build as early as the 15th of 

 March, or perhaps even earlier. The situation and 

 materials of their nest are exceedingly variable. I have 

 found them in trees, on logs: and rocks, the top rail of 

 a, picket-fence, inside a window-shutter, in the holes of 

 walls, under tile or thatch roofs, in haystacks and 

 barns, in the interstices between the sticks of a Hawk's 

 nest, and in an old nest of the Oriole. About houses 

 they always seek the protection of man, as if quite 

 unconscious of having made him their enemy. Heer- 

 mann mentions also, as locations of nests, the thorny 

 cactus and deserted Woodpecker's holes. The materials 

 are usually coarse grass or weeds, with a lining of hair 

 and fine roots. The eggs, from four to six, are bluish- 

 white, with spots and lines of black, chiefly towards 

 the larger end. They measure 0.78 by 0.66 inch. 



"The songs of this species differ very much from those 

 of the others. They are very lively and varied, though 

 short, and are heard throughout the year. Cage-birds, 

 usually called ' California Linnets,' are easily kept and 

 frequently to be seen, but generally their purple changes 

 to yellow after long confinement. 



" They raise two, if not three, broods annually. These 

 assemble in large flocks in autumn, but migrate very 

 little if any to the south. 



" The House-Finch of California is represented in 



Mexico by a closely-allied species, if not a mere variety." 



Ridgway says (" Birds of North and Middle America," 



"Vol. I., p. 124):" The habits of C. mexicanus are 



exceedingly different from those of C. purpureus and 



C. cassinii, resembling very closely those of the House 



Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in nearly every respect." 



This species has appeared more than once at the 



London Zoological Gardens, but Dr. Russ appears to 



have overlooked that fact. 



I do not thank there would be any advantage in includ- 

 ing_the White-winged Crossbill of N. America in "this 

 review of imported cage-birds, since not only is it 

 regarded by Dr. Sharpe as a mere sub-species of the 

 European Loxia bifasciata, but under the present strin- 

 gent laws enforced in the United States it is by no 

 means likely to 'become well known here as a cage-bird. 

 It has been exhibited in our Gardens. 



JAPANESE BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula griseiventris) . 



Very like the European Bullfinch, excepting that the 

 breast, abdomen, and flanks are grey, sometimes with a 

 rosy tinge, instead of bright salmon-red. The female 

 above is chocolate-brown, with black crown and white 

 rump; below chocolate-brown, whitish on lower abdo- 

 men and vent and white on under tadl-coverts. Habitat, 

 Japan, the island of Askold. Pekin. the valley of the 

 Ussuri, and an island in the Bay of Okhotsk. 



Seebohm gives no information respecting the habits 

 of this Bullfinch an his " Birds of the Japanese Empire." 

 't was exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens in 

 1903, when three specimens were obtained. 



PINE GROSBEAK (Pinicola enucleator). 



Rosy vinaceous, with bluish ashy bases to the feathers ; 

 feathers of the tipper parts mottled with dusky, which 

 lincreases on the back until it forms large subterminal 

 triangular brown patches, the vinous colouring being 



then limited to the _ end of each feather; rump clear 

 vinous-rose, almost immaculate, but upper tail-coverts 

 more like the feathers of the back ; wing and tail feathers 

 dark brown, outermost lesser, and med,ian coverts 

 broadly tipped with pinky white ; greater coverts and 

 inner secondaries broadly tipped and partly bordered 

 externally with white ; remaining flights and tadl-featheis 

 with narrow paler edges, whitish on distal fringe ; sides 

 of head vinous rose-colour ; the lores and orbiital region 

 dusky greyish; under parts dull vinous, the feathers 

 grey _at base and with dusky V-shaped subterminal 

 markings ; hinder breast and abdomen (excepting the 

 centre and flanks) washed with bright rosy-vinaceous ; 

 remainder of body below ashy grey ; under parts of wing 

 and tail dusky greyish ; front of wing narrowly barred 

 with pink and dusky ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 whitish ash ; beak and feet black ; irides haze 1 !. Female 

 with all the vinaceous and rose-colour replaced by 

 cupreous bronze, more coppery on the crown, slightly 

 olive-tinted on the back and more golden on the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts ; hardly a trace of the mottling 

 and triangular marking of the cock bird ; under parts 

 of a paler and less bluish ash-colour. Habitat, Northern 

 Europe and America. 



A few examples of the Old World type of this species 

 have been obtained in the British Islands, but it is 

 more than likely that they were all escaped or liberated 

 birds, since the first moult in captivity replaces ail the 

 charming rosy-vinaceous colouring of the cock by a dull 

 brassy huffish yellow. 



The following I quote from an article, illustrated by a 

 beautiful coloured plate of both sexes, which I published 

 in the Avicultural Magazine, 1st ser., Vol. III., 1896, 

 pp. 1-5 : " The nest of the Pine Grosbeak is usually 

 placed on a thick branch of spruce-fir, or birch, close to 

 the main stem and a,t a distance of from ten to 

 twelve feet from the ground ; it is somewhat like a large 

 edition of that of the Bullfinch, the outer framework 

 consisting of slender twigs of fir and the inside- of fine 

 grass bents, roots, and hair-lichen. The eggs numlber 

 from three to four, of a pale turquoise blue colour, with 

 deep purplish-brown or blackish spots, and greyer brown 

 shell-spots ; they varv much in the same manner as eggs 

 of the Bullfinch. 



" During the winter months this Fpecies is gregarious 

 in its habits, and is so tame that it is easily caught or 

 shot, but in the summer the flocks break up for breeding 

 purposes and the birds are then somewhat more shy, 

 though never so much as our Bullfinch. 



" The song in the wiild bird is said to 'be very melodious 

 and flute-like, the flight powerful and undulating. It is a 

 truo bird of the woods and a somewhat late breeder ; it 

 feeds on seeds of conifers, berries, and buds, as well as 

 insects and their larvae, and earthworms. 



" About July 20th I received a letter from Mr. James 

 H. Fleming, of Ontario, in which he informed me that 

 he was sendirg off a, box containing six Pine Grosbeaks 

 and a Purple Finch, under the care of Mr. J. B. Wil- 

 liams (Curator of the Montreal Natural History Society). 

 I received this kind present on July 23rd ; all the birds 

 reaching me alive, though very dirty and a good deal the 

 worse for quaiTejling during their fortnight of close con- 

 finement. 



"I turned the Pine Grosbeaks 1 out into my garden 

 aviary,* giving them a seed-mixture, consisting of sun- 

 flower, hemp, oats, canary and millet. I found that they 

 ate these seeds in the order given above, beginning with 

 tlia sunflower; they did not seem to care about the 



* I only had one at that time, and it wa& much smaller than 

 it now ie. 



