FUINKIIJ.IDJ'; — TIIK FIXCIIKS. 



461 



Carpof/nrus frontnlis. 



less sliar])ly dcfiiu'd, and the \viiig-featliL'r,s av(> l.ioadlv ed-jed with light 

 oartli-liiowu. 



Ill auluiim and winter, as in all the other si)ecios, tho rod tints aro softer 

 and mori' juiriilisli liian in spiiiii; md suiana'r. 



ir.\iiirs. Tas.sin'.s l'iu'i>lu Finfii is tiiu largest of tho American birds of 

 this gi'iHis, and is jiot only consi)icuously 

 diilerent I'roni all in size, but also othor 

 resiKH'ts. It is found lietween tho ■•roivu Cen- 

 tral I'lains and tho coast ranj^'o of mountains, 

 being Olio of tho common Iiirds of ('(dorado, 

 Utah, Nevada, and Kastorn Cidifornia. J)r. 

 Coojier found these liirds in largo numbers 

 about Lake Talioe in California. They were 

 ixll in their brown jdumago, and seemed so 

 much like the C. vafi/urnirHs in their habits 

 that he mistook them for that siiecies. lie 

 noticed in them a very peculiar call-note as 

 they (lew, reminding him of that of J'l/raiif/a, 

 and quite different from the other Varpoduci. The song of these Itirds, 

 as he afterwards heard it, was much louder and finer than that of C. cali- 

 fornirus, and more original in style. Ho is not familiar with their other 

 haliits, and has never mot with them in the Colorado N'alloy. They have 

 been iirocurod from Fort Thorne, I'ueblo Creek, and Alber-iuonnie, New 

 jMexico. Mr. IJidgway met with these birds in the AVahsatch :^[ountains, 

 Juno 20, 1809, in I'arley's Tark, I'tah, where ho found them breeding! 

 Their nest was in the top of a cottonwood-treo near the canon stream, about 

 forty feet from the ground. It is a soft liomogenof)us structure, Hattened in 

 shajie, and with only a slight depression. It is compo.sed principally of roots 

 and twigs, lined with softer materials of the same, i liters] )ersed with moss, 

 cott<jn, and other soft substances. It is two inches in luMght with a width 

 of four and a half inches. The cavity is about an inch deep. 



Ill his Keport on the Iiirds of Mr. King's survey, Mr. IJidgway states that 

 ho found this Linnet in the greatest abundance among the ](iiies of the Sierra 

 Nevada, near Carson City. It Avas next seen among the cedars and nut-] tines 

 of the East Humboldt Mountains, and again in the pine woods and cotton- 

 wood-troos along tho streams on the Walisatch Mountains. It breeds in all 

 these localities, and is in its habits essentially, though not exclusively, resi- 

 dent among the pines. March 21, 18(J8, :Mr. Hidgway observed flocks of 

 these birds near Carson City. They were found in every portion of the 

 woods, feeding among the branches of the pine-trees. They were all in full 

 song, the females as well as the males. A week later ho again found them 

 common among the isolated pines in the fields at the foot of the Sierras, 

 alighting on the trees in companies. Their notes resemble the song of the C. 

 purpurcns, but are finer and more musical. They have a great resemblance 



