80 PURPLE FINCH. 
wound had healed so completely, and was covered wits 30 thick a 
skin, that it seemed as though it had been so for years Whether 
this mutilation was occasioned by a shot, or in party quarrels of its 
own, I could not determine; but our invalid seemed to have used his 
stump either in hopping or resting, for it had all the appearance of 
having been brought in frequent contact with bodies harder than 
itself. ; j 
This bird is astriking example of the truth of what I have frequently 
repeated in this work, that in many instances the same bird has been 
more than once described by the same person as a different species ; 
for it is a fact which time will establish, that the Crimson-headed 
Finch of Pennant and Latham, the Purple Finch of the same and 
other naturalists, the Hemp Bird of Bartram, and the Fringilla rosea 
of Pallas, are one and the same, viz., the Purple Finch, the subject of 
the present article,* 3 
The Purple Finch is six inches in length, and nine in extent; head, 
neck, back, breast, rump, and tail-coverts, dark crimson, deepest on 
the head and chin, and lightest on the lower part of the breast; the 
back is streaked with dusky; the wings and tail are also dusky black, 
edged with reddish, the latter a good deal forked ; round the base of the 
bill, the recumbent feathers are of a light clay or cream color; belly 
and vent, white ; sides under the wings, streaked with dull reddish ; legs, 
a dirty purplish flesh color ; bill, short, strong, conical, and of a dusky 
horn color; iris, dark hazel; the feathers covering the ears are more 
dusky red than the other parts. of the head. This is the male when 
arrived at its full colors. The female is nearly of the-same size, of a 
brown olive or flaxen color, streaked with dusky black ; the head, seamed 
with lateral lines of whitish; above and below the hind part of the 
ear-feathers, are tivo streaks of white; the breast is whitish, streaked 
with a light flax color; tail and wings, as in the male, only both edged 
with dull brown, instead of red; belly and vent, white. This is also 
the color of the young during the first, and to at least the end of the 
* The present figure is that of an adult male ; and that sex in the winter state is 
again figured and described in the second volume. (London edition.) Bonaparte 
has shown that Wilson is wrong in making the F. rosea of Pallas, and the Loxia 
erythrina of Gmelin, the same with his bird. Mr. Swainson remarks, “ We are 
almost persuaded that there are two distinct species of these Purple Finches, which 
not only Wilson, but all the modern ornithologists of America, have confounded 
under the same name.” We may reasonably conclude, then, that another allied 
species may yet be discovered, and that perhaps Wilson was wrong regarding birds 
which he 1k for the F’. rosea. : 
F. purpurea and Pyrrhula frontalis of Say and Bonaparte will rank as a sub- 
genus in Pyrrhua, and, from the description of their habits, approach very near to 
both the Crossbills and Pine Grosbeaks. : 
By the attention of the Prince of Musignano, I have received his review of Cuvier’s 
Régne Animal, and am now enabled to state from it the opinion of that ornithologist 
regarding the station of these birds. He agrees in the subordinate rank of the group,” 
and its alliance to the Finches, Bullfinches, and Coccothraustes or Hawfinch, and 
prsperes ‘the subgeneric name of Krythrospiza, which I have provisionally adopted, 
aving Fringilla purpurea.of Wilson as typical, and containing Pyrrhula frontalis, 
Say and Bonap.; P. githaginea, Temm. Pl. Col.; Loxia Ginerices, Falck.; LZ. 
rosea, Pall.; L. erythrina,‘Pall.; P. synoica, Temm. Pl. Col.; and L. rubicilla, 
Lath. ‘According to the list of species which he has mentioned, and which we have 
no present opportunity of comparing with the true type, the group will have a very 
extensive distribution over America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. —Ep. 
