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Purple Finches 



By MRS. HERMAN F. STRAW. Manchester. N. H. 



I WONDER if some of the readers of Bird-Lore might not be interested 

 in my experience with Purple Finches ! 

 For several years I have had shelves for birds outside my upper sitting- 

 room windows and have kept on them different kinds of seeds, also fruit, crumbs, 

 suet, whatever I have had reason to think might possibly attract birds of any 

 kind. I have had for visitors at various times, White-belHed Nuthatches, 

 Chickadees, one Downy Woodpecker, Myrtle Warblers, Black and White 

 Warblers, and Summer Yellow-birds, but this year there have been only 

 Finches. 



Last April, as I came into this room one morning, I saw what seemed to be 

 a red bird, with wings and tail outspread, trying to get a footing on the out- 

 side of the window-pane. (Possibly my Canary, hanging in his cage on the 

 inside, may have attracted him.) I stood perfectly still for a minute or two to 

 assure myself as to what the bird was, and found it to be a Purple Finch, a 

 gorgeous male ! Then I quickly went to get some seed, as there happened to 

 be very little on the shelf, and my bird had flown when I came back, I feared, 

 for good, but I put out the seed — sunflower, rape, hemp, and canary, and 

 watched. To my great delight he was back again within half an hour and 

 surely found something to his Hking, for he ate greedily several times during 

 the day. 



The next morning he brought two females with him, and in less than a 

 week there were two males and several brown companions here many times 

 each day. Then, suddenly, they disappeared, and I thought I should see them 

 no more, but about four weeks later a female made her appearance, bringing 

 a young bird with her. Then, the next day, came the male, and here on the 

 shelf, while I sat at the window knitting, the little one was fed by the parents, 

 day after day. They did not have this feeding-place to themselves long, how- 

 ever, for more were with them soon, and then, more still — several males and 

 many females — until now, August 26, there must be thirty Finches, surely, 

 frequenting this shelf, for I have counted twenty-three eating at one time. 



Many little ones have been "brought up," sometimes the mother taking 

 them in hand, sometimes the father helping out. This feeding is done by regur- 

 gitation, and the process is most interesting. The baby droops its wings, cocks 

 its tail over the back as far as possible, raises its tiny crest, hops after first one 

 parent and then the other, crying and coaxing plaintively, with its mouth wide 

 open. Finally, one of the parents gives it three or four mouthfuls from its own 

 crop, gulping up the food with apparent ease. The little one seems saved the 

 trouble of swallowing, for its mouth is open all the time, and the parent's beak 

 is thrust down the baby throat as far as possible, time after time, in quick 

 succession. 



(i6s) 



