PURPLE FINCH. 225 



reconciled to confinement, and in a day or two are quite at home. 

 I have kept a pair of these birds upwards of nine months, to ob- 

 serve their manners. One was caught in a trap, the other was 

 winged with the gun; both are now as familiar as if brought up 

 from the nest by the hand, and seem to prefer hempseed and 

 cherry blossoms to all other kinds of food. Both male and fe- 

 male, though not crested, are almost constantly in the habit of 

 erecting the feathers of the crown; they appear to be of a tyran- 

 nical and domineering disposition, for they nearly killed an In- 

 digo-bird, and two or three others that were occasionally placed 

 with them, driving them into a corner of the cage, standing on 

 them and tearing out their feathers, striking them on the head, 

 munching their wings, &c. &c., till I was obliged to interfere; 

 and even if called to, the aggressor would on]\ turn up a mali- 

 cious eye to me for a moment, and renew his outrage as before. 

 They are a hardy vigorous bird. In the month of October, about 

 the time of their first arrival, I shot a male, rich in plumage, and 

 plump in flesh, but which wanted one leg, that had been taken 

 off a little above the knee; the wound had healed so complete- 

 ly, and was covered with so thick a skin, that it seemed as though 

 it had been so for years. Whether this mutilation was occasion- 

 ed by a shot, or in party quarrels of its own, I could not deter- 

 mine; but our invalid seemed to have used his stump either in 

 hopping or resting, for it had all the appearance of having been 

 brought in frequent contact with other bodies harder than itself. 



This bird is a striking example of the' truth of what I have 

 frequently repeated in this work, that in many instances the 

 same bird has been more than once described by the same per- 

 son as a different species; for it is a fact which time will estab- 

 lish, that the Crimson-headed Finch of Pennant and Latham, 

 the Purple Finch of the same and other naturalists, the Hemp- 

 bird of Bartram. and the Fringilla rosea of Pallas, are one and 

 the same, viz. the Purple Finch, the subject of the present ar- 

 ticle. 



The Purple Finch is six inches in length and nine in extent; 

 head, neck, back, breast, rump, and tail coverts, dark crimson, 



VOL. n. F f 



