582 NOTES ON SOME OF THE 



in summer in many parts of the state, and the number that 

 breed here seems to be increasing. They usually select 

 evergreens for their nests, and appear to more often build 

 in the cultivated shrubbery of the towns than elsewhere. 

 They are almost as unsuspicious as the proverbially familiar 

 Chipping Sparrow (Spizella socialis), they often placing their 

 nests in the hedge-rows that border frequented walks. I 

 learn from Mr. B. P. Mann that he has repeatedly found 

 their nests in such situations, and Mr. R. B. Hildreth has 

 observed the same fact at Springfield. This familiar habit 

 in the Purple Finch of California has obtained for it the 

 name of House Finch, and it was supposed to differ greatly 

 in this respect from the Purple Finch of the Atlantic states, 

 before the breeding habits of the latter were so well known. 

 It differs in this respect not apparently from the eastern bird, 

 nor in any other way to any essential degree, specimens from 

 California in the Museum of Comparative Zoology being 

 quite indistinguishable from others from Massachusetts. 

 Hence its distinctive name of frontalis- becomes properly a 

 synonym of purpureus. 



For the past two winters I have observed individuals of 

 this species at frequent intervals in Cambridge, and Mr. 

 Bennett has observed it at the same season about Mount 

 Holyoke. By far the greater part, however, go farther 

 south at this season. 



Nearly all observers in Southern New England that I have 

 met remark that this bird has greatly increased there during 

 the last ten years ; especially is it more numerous in the 

 breeding season. 



PINE Fixe n. Ghrysomitris pinus Bon. But a single in- 

 stance of the breeding of this bird in Massachusetts has 

 come to my knowledge that mentioned in my Catalogue. 

 The present year, however, they were quite common in Cam- 

 bridge till the last of June, and on two or three occasions I 

 observed them during the first half of July. I felt sure at 

 one time that they would breed here, but if they, like the 



