220 USEFUL BIRDS. 



Many beetle larvas 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 chip, and they call to each other with 

 a riote which resembles the syllables pie-wee 1 . The song of 

 the male is a sudden, joyous burst of melody, vigorous, but 



