182 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAKD AND EASTERN NEW YOKK 



ish; wings and tail brownish; tail rather deeply forked. Ad. 9 

 and Im. — Upper parts grayish-brown, streaked ; under parts 

 grayish, streaked with brown ; line behind eye gray. $ in first 

 breeding season, like the female. 



Nest, in evergreens, five to thirty feet up. Eggs, blue, spotted 

 at large end with brownish. 



The Purple Finch is a permanent resident of New Eng- 

 land and New York, but of irregular occurrence in winter, 



sometimes very rare, often 

 rather common. In south- 

 ern New England and the 

 lower Hudson Valley, it is 

 a common migrant in April, 

 and in September and Oc- 

 tober, but few remain 

 through the summer. In 

 New England the summer 

 residents arrive in April 

 and stay until October. 

 They are found, in winter, either in cedar groves or in hard 

 wood, near groves of hop hornbeam, but they are active, rest- 

 less birds, and may be heard anywhere flying overhead. In 

 spring they frequent the same places, but come also to the 

 evergreens about houses, and to the elms in the street, the 

 swelling buds of which they bite off. In summer they build 

 chiefly in conifers, and are numerous in the great northern 

 forests. They utter, when flying, a single sharp ^i^, by which 

 they may be easily identified. 



Their song is vigorous and musical, a rapid, energetic 

 warble, often lengthened in the height of the mating sea- 

 son to a long, passionate utterance (see Warbling Vireo, 

 p. 135). The male at this season walks, or rather dances, 

 about the female, with wings spread and quivering, repeat- 

 ing the song in a low, pleading tone, or he flies off singing 

 in the air in his loudest tones. A call-note, resembling the 



Fig. 55. Purple Finch, Female 



