THE PURPLE FINCH 



By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



tlTde Rational j^00ociation ot SLnlmbon ^ocieiie0 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 28 



The family of Sparrows and Finches, hke that of the Warblers, Blackbirds 

 and Orioles, offers such an infinite variety of species and disports so many con- 

 tradictory fashions in the cut of beaks and tinting of plumage that when we have 

 even a bowing acquaintance with it we feel that we have really entered the realm 

 of bird knowledge. 



In addition to its rarity, family Fringillidae is the largest of all 

 His Family bird families, numbering some five hundred and fifty species, that 

 inhabit all parts of the world except Australia. 



The one point that binds them together which the untrained may discover is 

 the stout bill, conical in shape with great power for seed-crushing. For, first and 

 last, all of the tribe are seed-eaters, and though in the nesting season much ani- 

 mal food is eaten by adults as well as fed to the young, and tree-buds and fruits 

 are also relished, the tribe of Finches and Sparrows can live well upon seeds — 

 seeds of weeds, the seeds concealed between the scales of pine-cones and the pulp- 

 enveloped seeds of wild fruits that are called berries. 



This ability to pick a living at any season of the year that the seeded weeds of 

 waste fields and roadsides are uncovered makes what are called " permanent resi- 

 dents" of many species of Sparrows, and causes them, when they migrate, to still 

 keep to a more restricted circle than their insect-eating brethern. Also, alas! this 

 seed-eating quality, coupled with beauty of plumage and voice, has made them 

 favorite cage-birds the world over. Happily, freedom has now come to them in 

 this country, together with all our birds, and as far as the law may protect them 

 they are safe, though the latest reports say that small consignments of Mocking- 

 birds and Cardinals are still smuggled over seas by way of Hamburgh. 



Run over the list of prominent members of the Fringillidae, or family of 

 Finches and Sparrows. Call them by memory if you can; if not, take a book 

 and look them up. 



The Sparrows are clad in shades of brown more or less streaked, and their dull 

 colors protect them amid the grasses in which they feed and lodge. The birds of 

 brighter plumage are obliged to look out for themselves, as it were, and keep nearer 

 the sky, where their colors are lost in the blaze of light. 



First to be remembered are the birds that wear more or less 

 Colors of red,— the Cardinal, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Redpolls, 



Crossbills, the Pine Grosbeak and the Purple Finch (who is no 

 more purple than he is blue or yellow). 



(225) 



