FlilNGILLID^E— THE FlXCllKS. 4(39 



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surpasses it in sweetness. Its beautiful pluniaj^e aloO renders it still more 

 attractive. The peeuliaily sott and musical timt of this bird is also very 

 similar to that of the (.'anarv, and is very ditterent from the connnon note of 

 the Purple Finch. This bird breeils very numerously amonu: tlic sliade-trees 

 in the streets of Sacramento, as well as among the oak i^noves on the out- 

 skirts of that city. The males are very shy, but the females, when their nest 

 is disturbed, keej) up a lively chirj)ing in an adjoininji' tn^e. Tlie nest is gen- 

 erally situated near the extremity of a horizontal branch of a small oak, 

 usually in a grove, occasionally in an isolated tree. In one instance it made 

 use of an abandoned nest of a DuUock's Oriole, and in another of that of a 

 Cliff Swallow. 



Dr. Cooper speaks of this bird as being especially abundant in all the 

 southern portions of California, and also, according to Dr. Newberry, tlnough- 

 out all the valleys northward into Oregon. It is a species tliat is every- 

 where peculiar to the valleys, while the others of this genus are equally 

 confined to the wooded mountsiins. Dr. ( 'ooper als* met with this sj)ecies 

 in the plains near the coast, where there are no plants higher than the wild 

 mustard, on the seeds of which they feed. They also fre(pient the groves 

 and the open forests on tlie summits of the coast range, but in small num- 

 bers, in company with the C. califoniicus. They at times feed on buds of 

 trees, and seeds of the cottonwood and other jdants. It is most abundant 

 among ranches and gardens where. Dr. Cooper states, it does much mischief 

 by destroying seeds and young plants, fruit and buds. For these depreda- 

 tions even its cheerful and constant song is not regarded as an adecpuite com- 

 pensation ; and unlike the New-Mexicans in their treatment of its kindred 

 race, the California cultivators wage an unrelenting war ujion these birds. 



At San Diego, Dr. Cooper found them building as early as the loth of 

 March, and even a little earlier. IJoth the situati(»n and the materials of 

 their nest vary. He has found them nesting in trees, on logs and rocks, on 

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

 under tiles, on the thatch of a roof, in barns and haystacks, and even be- 

 tween tiie interstices in the sticks of which the nest of a Hawk had been 

 made, and once in the old nest of an Oriole. About dwellings they always 

 seek the protection of man, and seem to be (juite unconscious of having 

 deserved or incurred his enmity. The materials of their nests are usually 

 coarse <jrasses and weeds, with a lining of hair and tine roots. Thev raise 

 two, sometimes three, broods in a season, and in the autumn assemble in 

 large Hocks, but migrate very little, if any, to the south. 



Dr. Cooper states that their songs are very different from those of the 

 other s|iecies. They are very varied and very li\ ely, and are heard througli- 

 out the year. They are easily ke])t as cage-birds, but soon lose the beauty 

 of their plumage in confinement, their bright purple colors changing to a 

 dirty yellow. 



Nuttall did not observe any of this species in Oregon. 



