264 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



character. Sometimes when overcome with emotion he launches into the 

 air with vibrating wings, rising upward and upward, a torrent of melody 

 coming from his swelling throat, until he has reached an altitude of 200 

 to 300 feet, when he descends in wide circles with outstretched wings to 

 the summit of the evergreen from which he started. Sometimes in late 

 May or early June he may be heard to burst forth as if with unrestrained 

 emotion so suddenly as to startle one by the gushing of his overpowering 

 melody. I have thought sometimes that it was the most impassioned 

 bird song that we have in our groves and woodlands. I have also seen 

 him dancing about the female on the limbs of a tree or on the ground with 

 his wings fully extended and quivering, his crest raised to its utmost, his 

 tail spread and the brilliant feathers of his rump raised in the air, all the 

 while uttering his melodious warble, sotto voce, until, apparently overcome 

 by his emotion, he closed his wings and flew to a neighboring tree, perhaps 

 to repeat the performance in a few minutes. Besides his song, while flying 

 he utters a sharp " pit," and while feeding frequently a " chipp chee." 

 Mr Bicknell has noticed the song period to begin from the fourth week of 

 March, or sometimes as late as the 23d of April, and continue to the 

 middle of July, varying from the 2d to the 20th. The autumn song is 

 weak and desultory. The immature males, which look like the females, 

 sing almost as well as the high plumaged males, and several observers 

 have stated that they have positively made out the fact that the females 

 themselves sing, though not so melodiously as the male. 



The food of the Purple finch consists in spring largely of the buds of 

 trees. Unfortunately, the buds of the peach, cherry and apple trees are 

 frequently selected. In this way he often does considerable harm to the 

 peach and cherry orchard, but serious complaints have come from only 

 a few localities in frew York. Later in the season I have often found 

 them feeding on green cherries, one-fourth grown, on the green berries 

 •of the fly honeysuckle, viburnum and ironwoods and, in the fall, on the 

 ripened fruit of the red cedar, white ash, hemlock, and nearly any species 

 of seed-bearing tree. They rarely feed upon the ground, but sometimes 



