312 CLASS AVES. 



opposite engraving is taken from a drawing from life, made 

 in Jamaica, by Major Charles Hamilton Smith. This bird is 

 the Purple Grosbeak of Dr. Latham. The general colour of 

 of the plumage is violet-black, except the irides, a streak over 

 the eye, chin, and vent, which are orange-red ; the wings, a 

 deeper violet. This bird inhabits the Bahama Islands, Ja- 

 maica, and the warmest parts of America, and feeds on the 

 mucilage of the poison- wood berries. 



We may now turn our attention to the Bulfixches, 

 (Pykrhula). 



Here again, unfortunately, we are not less involved in 

 difficulties as to the species, different authors appropriating 

 them to different divisions of the grosbeaks, and distinguish- 

 ing the bullfinches from the rest by different characters. 

 Thus Daudin, who makes of them the fourth section of his 

 Loxia, distinguishes them by the short mandible, extremely 

 convex, and forming almost a spherical cone. Temminck, 

 who makes them the first division of his twenty-fourth 

 genus, Fr'ingillay gives for their characters convex man- 

 dibles, the upper of which is bent at its point, and nostrils 

 generally hidden by the feathers of the forehead. Vieillot 

 treats them as a distinct genus, employing a union of cha- 

 racters drawn from the different parts in which generic charac- 

 ters are generally found ; and Cuvier, as we have seen, dis- 

 tinguishes them only by a round and gibbous beak. 



The Bulfinch is found in most parts of Europe, fre- 

 quenting woods and gardens ; builds its nest either in the 

 fork of a tree, not very high, or in a bush, generally the white- 

 thorn. About the end of April, or in May, they begin the 

 affair of nidification. The nest is composed of small 

 branches, interlaced on the outside, and the fibres of roots 

 within. The female lays from four to six bluish white eggs, 

 with red or brownish spots, particularly toward the gross 



