220 USEFUL BIRDS. 
Many beetle larve are thus found, among them the white 
grub of the May beetle. The bird finds many ground beetles 
and ants; it picks up the mature forms of Arctians, many- 
of the smaller nocturnal moths, and many hairy caterpillars. 
When it lives near gardens or cultivated fields it is said to feed 
on such pests as potato beetles and cabbage worms. Grass- 
hoppers and cockroaches are eaten, also flies and earthworms. 
“The vegetable food of this bird consists largely of fruit and 
weed seeds. It has been accused of pulling corn in some 
localities ; but this habit probably occurs rarely, though its 
strong bill enables it to crack and devour hard corn. Wild 
berries are much eaten in summer. The only cultivated fruit 
I ever knew this bird to take was the gooseberry, a few 
of which it picked up from the ground where they had 
dropped. 
Purple Finch. Crimson Finch. Red Linnet. Gray Linnet. 
Carpodacus purpureus. 
Length. — About six inches. 
Adult Male.— Entire body suffused with tints varying from reddish-brown to 
rose-red or wine-purple, “like a brown bird dipped in diluted pokeberry 
juice,”’ as Burroughs says. 
Adult Female.— Olive-grayish; streaked above and below with dusky. The 
young male is much like the female. 
Nest. — Usually at no great height, on coniferous trees; made of grass, twigs, and 
fibers, lined with horsehair. 
Eggs.— Pale greenish, spotted and scratched with purplish-brown and black. 
Season.— Resident; but irregular in winter. 
The Purple Finch is naturally a bird of the woods, but it 
has learned to love the vicinage of human habitations, and 
lives about orchards or in groves or shade trees on well-kept 
estates, and is more commonly seen in such situations than 
in the woods. 
The species is gregarious, and sometimes during the mi- 
grations or in winter they may be seen, in flocks of twenty 
to fifty individuals, roaming the country in search of the 
berries and seeds of which they are fond. The ordinary 
note is a sharp, hard chp, and they. call to each other with 
a note which resembles the syllables pé-wee’. The song of 
the male is a sudden, joyous burst of melody, vigorous, but 
