266 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



PURPLE FINCH 



Oct. 7, 1842. A little girl has just brought me a 

 purple finch, or American linnet. These birds are now 

 moving south. It reminds me of the pine and spruce, 

 and the juniper and cedar on whose berries it feeds. It 

 has the crimson hues of the October evenings, and its 

 plumage still shines as if it had caught and preserved 

 some of their tints (beams?). We know it chiefly as a 

 traveller. It reminds me of many things I had forgot- 

 ten. Many a serene evening lies snugly packed under 

 its wing. 



April 15, 1854. The arrival of the purple finches 

 appears to be coincident with the blossoming of the 

 elm, on whose blossom it feeds. 



May 24, 1855. Heard a purple finch sing more than 

 one minute without pause, loud and rich, on an elm 

 over the street. Another singing very faintly on a 

 neighboring elm. 



April 12, 1856. There suddenly flits before me and 

 alights on a small apple tree in Mackay's field, as I go 

 to my boat, a splendid purple finch. Its glowing red- 

 ness is revealed when it lifts its wings, as when the 

 ashes is blown from a coal of fire. Just as the oriole 

 displays its gold. 



region. Mr. J. E. Cabot's statement in the Atlantic for December, 1857, 

 that he had seen the bird " at the White Mountains in August" seems 

 to have escaped Thoreau's attention. Perhaps the descendants of these 

 birds of Thoreau's still haunt the mountain. Thirty years later at least, 

 in June, 18§8, the writer, in company with Mr. Bradford Torrey, found 

 several pine grosbeaks high up on Lafayette and heard from two of 

 them their beautiful song.] 



