•158 North American hirds. 



No. 49,!)o'), luliilt male. Niiliit.i, Yiikdii River, Alaskii. January 10, 18G7. W. 11. 

 Dali, (No. ■).'.;!)• 



Tl»e specimen referred ti) above is the first record of the occurrence in 

 America of a genus heretofore considered iis ));!h)n>fiug exclusively to the 

 Old World. 



Tliis hird was described in 1809 as a possible; variety of P. coicinca of 

 Europe. On sul)mittiiig the typical s])ecimens to Mr. H. B. Tristram of 

 England, it was decided to be a well-mai ked and distinct species, as ex- 

 plained in till! lolldwing extract from a letter received from him. 



"The coloration of the back is the .same as in males of P. coecinea and 

 P. riihicilla,{im\ diilers from the coloration of the 9 in fill three sj)ecies. In 

 all the 9 has the back brown instead of slate-colored. Your bird, however, 

 dilfers from P. cocciiicn in having the under parts of the same cohn' as the ^ 

 of P. griscivintrls with a slightly redder hue on the flanks, while P. eoccinca 

 is a brilliant blazing red. In this your bird is like P. mwina of the Azores, 

 but that has no white on the rump. 



" Nor can it be ^ juv. of P. cocci imt, because it has the black head, and the 

 young assumes the black head and red breast sinniltiineously, or rather the 

 red begins first. It diilers from P. uipaleims in having a black head and 

 broatl white rump, as well as in size." 



Dr. O. Finsch, of Bremen, agrees with Mr. Tristram in considering it as 

 specifically distinct, and says that the long white shaft -streak on the outer- 

 most tail-feather is to be considered as one of the peculiar characters, and 

 that in general it resembles the female of P. griscivcntris, Lxvii., but differs 

 in having the back beautiful ash-gray. 



HAiU'r.s. This new species of Bullfinch, having a close resemblance to the 

 P. eoccinca of Eurojie, was obtained by Mr. iJall, near Nulato, Alaska, January 

 10, 1807. An Indian brought it in alive, but badly wounded, having shot it 

 from a small tree near the fort. He had never seen anything like it before, 

 nor had any of the liussians. Captain Everett Smith had, however, met with 

 several flocks of the same species near Ulukiik. This sj)eciim'n was a male, 

 with black eyes, feet, and bill, ami was the only bird of the kind met with 

 by Mr. Dall. 



In size it is a'.iout equal to F. eoccinca, which is now quite generally con- 

 sidered to be simply a large race of the common riuUtinch {P. vu/f/aris), and 

 the haliits of the American bird are doubtless similar to those of its c(m- 

 geners. The Euroj)ean races inhabit tlu; mountainous regions of Northern 

 and Central Europe, apjiearing in large flocks in December and January in 

 the more southern regions. In their return in sjiring to their summer (piar- 

 ters, they move in siuailcr numbers. They nest in the mountain forests, on 

 trees or bushes. Their nest is usually but a few feet from the ground, is 

 beautifully wrought in a cup shape, made externally of small twigs, blades of 

 grass, and rootlets, lined with coarse hair. The)' lay five eggs, the ground- 

 color of which shades from a light blue to a bluish or a greenish white, with 



