262 ■ NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



It is true that these wholesale hunts frequently destroy some beneficial 

 birds, but if all the house owners of every district should conspire against 

 the sparrow, each one making himself responsible for all the nesting birds 

 and nests on his own premises, we believe that each one could be successful, 

 and it is evident that such warfare would soon be disastrous to this 

 pestiferous bird. 



Carpodacus purpureas purpureus (Gmelin) 



Purple Finch 



Plate 76 



Fringilla purpurea Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1789. 1:923 



Erythrospiza purpurea' DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 169, fig. 163 

 Carpodacus purpureus p,urpureus A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 

 p. 243. No. 517 



carpodacus, from Gr., fruit-biting; purpiireus, Lat., purple 



Description. Size of the English sparrow; bill stoutly conical; tail 

 slightly forked; head slightly crested. Adult male: Head, neck, throat, 

 breast and rump rich rose red or " wine ptuplish," brightest on the crest 

 and rump, the winey purplish most pronounced on the breast; whole 

 pliunage suffused with the same color, but the feathers of the back with 

 dusky central streaks; the wings and tail fuscous, slightly edged with the 

 reddish color; belly and under tail coverts whitish. Female: Grayish 

 olive brown streaked with darker; under parts white tinged on the throat 

 and breast with buffy, conspicuously streaked with dusky; sparrowHke in 

 appearance, but the unusually heavy bill and heavy streaking distinguish 

 her. Young males: Until the second year, like the female. 



Length 5.5-6.25 inches; extent 10.2; wing 3.15-3.4; tail 2.3-2.5; biU 

 .46; tarsus .68. 



Distribution. The Purple finch inhabits eastern North America, 

 breeding from British Columbia, Alberta, northern Ontario, central Quebec 

 and Newfoundland southward to North Dakota, Minnesota, northern 

 Illinois, the mountains of Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey and Long 

 Island. In New York it breeds in all sections of the State, but is a rare 

 summer resident on Long Island and in the immediate vicinity of New 

 York City, and on Staten Island. Throughout the Adirondack and Catskill 

 districts it is a common summer resident, as well as in the highlands of 



