PURPLE FINCH. 2S 



are as numerous as during the summer months in far more northern 

 parts, where they breed ; and you may see different gradations of plu- 

 mage, from the dingy greenish-brown of the female and young to the 

 richest tints of the oldest and handsomest male ; while along with these 

 there are others which, by my habit of examining birds, I knew to be 

 old, and which are of a yellowish-green, neither the colour of the young 

 males, nor that of the females, but a mixture of aU. 



The song of the Purple Finch is sweet and continued, and I have en- 

 joyed it much during the spring and summer months, in the mountain- 

 ous parts of Pennsylvania, where it occasionally breeds, particularly 

 about the Great Pine Forest, where, although I did not find any nests, 

 I saw pairs of these birds flying about and feeding their young, which 

 could not have been many days out, and were not fully fledged. The 

 food which they carried to their young consisted of insects, small berries, 

 and the juicy part of the cones of the spruce pine. 



They frequently associate with the Common Cross-bills, feeding on the 

 same trees, and like them are at times fond of alighting against the mud 

 used for closing the log-houses. They are seldom seen on the ground, 

 although their motions there are by no means embarrassed. They are 

 considered as destructive birds by some farmers, who accuse them of 

 committing great depredations on the blossoms of their fruit-trees. T 

 never observed this in Louisiana, where they remain long after the peach 

 and pear trees are in full bloom. I have eaten many of them, and con- 

 sider their flesh equal to that of any other small bird, excepting the Rice 

 Bunting. ' . . . 



FaiNGiLi.A PuapuREA, Gmel. Syst. vol. i. p. 923 — Lath. Ind. Oriiith. vol. i. p. 446. 

 Purple Finch, Fringilla purpurea, Wilson, Americ. Ornith. vol. i. p. 119, 

 PI. 7, fig. 4. Adult Male ; and vol. v. p. 87, PL 42, fig. 3. Male. 



Adult Male. Plate IV. Fig. 1, 2. 



Bill shortish, robust, bulging, conical, acute ; upper mandible with 

 its dorsal outline a little convex, under mandible with its outline also 

 slightly convex, both broadly convex transversely, the edges straight to 

 near the base, where they are a Uttle deflected. Nostrils basal, roundish, 

 open, partially concealed by the feathers. Head rather large. Neck 

 short, and thick. Body fuU. Legs of moderate size ; tarsus of the same 

 length as the middle toe, covered anteriorly with a longitudinal plate 



