PURPLE FINCH. 29 



great skill in moving about. Like the Crossbills and Redpolls they are born acrobats. 

 Their flight is not very quick, rather high and undulating. During the winter months 

 we only hear their soft and lisping call-notes, sounding like cheep, cheep, cheep. Towards 

 the spring a few notes of their very melodious, liquid, and clear song may be heard. If 

 such fine notes are uttered in their winter home, how beautiful must be the song in their 

 summer haunts during the nuptial time ! 



In the cold winter from 1877 to 1878 a large number were captured near Chicago. 

 As they were brought in the warm rooms, almost all died in a short time. I captured 

 four in a trap cage, brought them in a cold room and they felt entirely at home. Even 

 in the summer they did not suffer from the heat, as I kept them in a cool room on the 

 north-side of the house. They were fed with Canary seed, millet, sun-flower seed, some 

 hemp and all kinds of fruit. As I kept the birds in company with Crossbills, Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeaks, Bobolinks, and other species, I rarely heard their exceedingly beau- 

 tiful song. They were so tame that they took seeds, meal worms, and grasshoppers 

 from the hand. 



Prof. R. Ridgway, in his "Manual of North American Birds," describes two 

 varieties of the Pine Grosbeak, inhabiting North America. The one which occurs in 

 northern North America in general, he calls the American Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola 

 enucleator canadensis Ridgw. The other variety, inhabiting Kadiak to Sitka, Alaska, 

 he calls Kadiak Pine Grosbeak, Pia/co/a enucleator kadiaka Ridgw. 

 NAMES: American Pine Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak, Pine Bullfinch. — Hakengimpel (German). 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Loxia enucleator Linn. (1758). Pyrrhula enucleator Aud. (1838). Pinicola enu- 

 cleator Cab. (1851). Coccotbraustes canadensis Briss. (1760). Pinicola canadensis Cab. "^(1851). 

 PINICOLA ENUCLEATOR CANADENSIS Ridgw. (1887). 

 DESCRIPTION: "Adult male: Carmine red, paler or whitisli on the belly, streaked with blackish on the 

 back; wings and tail, dusky, with whitish edging, the former also with two white cross-bars. Bill 

 and feet, blackish. Female: Ashy-gray, paler below, marked with brownish-yellow on the head and 

 rump. There is a great difference in the shade of red of the male, and in the saffron markings of the 

 female. It is one of the largest of the Fringillidse, with a remarkably short, stout bill, convex in all 

 its outUnes, and overhanging tip of upper mandible— almost parrot-like. 



"Length, 8.00 to 9.00 inches; wing, 4.50; tail, 4.00 inches." (Steams and Coues' "New England 

 Bird Life." Vol. I, p. 214.) 



Pinicola enucleator kadiaka RiDGW. is smaller, with proportionally much larger bill and shorter tail. 



Cassin's Bullfinch, Pyrrhula cassini Baird, is a rare inhabitant of Alaska. 



PURPLE FINCH, 



Carpodacus purpureus Baird. 



"ET IS a beautiful, sunny June morning. A cool easterly breeze comes from Lake 

 (^ Michigan. In the low meadows numerous merry Bobolinks are soaring in the air, 

 pouring forth their sweet tinkling strains with great vivacity. The familiar Redwing, 

 dressed in a robe of deep black, which is relieved by fiery scarlet on the shoulders, makes 



