The Cassin Purple Finch 



nothing of the economic insistence of the north to south flights, is a hap- 

 hazard affair. And by the same token, the Lawrence Goldfinch seems to 

 be a sort of haphazard bird. 



No. 32 



Cassin's Purple Finch 



A. O. U. No. 518. Carpodacus cassini Baird. 



Description. — Young (?) adult male: Crown carmine red; back and scapulars 

 grayish red (light jasper red), mixed with brownish gray, and sharply streaked with 

 dusky; wings and tail dusky, with more or less edging of reddish gray; remaining 

 plumage, including rump, chiefly grayish red (jasper pink — never really" rosy"), 

 passing into white posteriorly below; flanks and under tail-coverts sometimes sharply 

 streaked with dusky. Bill horn-color; feet and legs light brown. Adult female, 

 immature male, and old (?) male: Everywhere (save on wings, tail, and lower abdomen) 

 sharply streaked with dusky, clearly, on a white ground, below; above, on a brownish 

 gray or dull olive-buffy ground. Length of adult 152-165 (6.00-6.50); wing 92 (3.62); 

 tail 64 (2.52); bill 12.6 (.49); tarsus 19 (.75). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; red of crown contrasting with back dis- 

 tinctive as compared with C. p. calif ornicus; general streakiness of female (and male in 

 more common plumage). The cast of plumage is less strongly olivaceous, and the 

 streaking is both finer and sharper, less blended. 



Nesting. — Nest: On a basis of interlaced pine twigs, rather bulky, is bedded a 

 firm cup of interwoven grasses, rootlets, fine bark-strips, and, if possible, horsehair. 

 The whole is usually settled in the bushy radiating tip of a pine branch, well concealed, 

 and at any height, from ten to eighty feet. Measures outside 5 or 6 inches (mm 127 

 to 152) wide, by 3 or 4 inches (mm 76-101) deep; inside 23^-3 inches (mm 63-76) wide, 

 by \-iyi in. (mm 25-38) deep. Eggs: 4 or 5, ovate to elongate ovate; bluish green 

 (microcline green), spotted sharply and rather sparingly with light purplish gray, or 

 violet-gray, and black. Av. of 37 specimens in M. C. O. coll.: 20 x 14.8 (.79 x .575). 

 Season: June; one brood. 



General Range. — Western North America, breeding chiefly in mountainous 

 regions and in Upper Sonoran to Boreal zones, from southern British Columbia south 

 to northern Lower California, central Arizona and northern New Mexico; in winter 

 from central California and southern Arizona south over Mexican plateau to Vera 

 Cruz, San Luis Potosi, and Valley of Mexico. 



Distribution in California. — Common resident of timbered mountainous dis- 

 tricts, chiefly on semi-arid or eastern exposures; breeding in coniferous timber from 

 lower limit of yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) to limit of trees. Center of abundance 

 in east central Sierras, rare in northern coastal ranges. Has not been reported from 

 coast ranges south of San Francisco, but possibly occurs in San Rafael Mountains of 

 Santa Barbara County. Winter range imperfectly made out, but bird probably retires 

 to somewhat lower levels, and is known to deploy somewhat over foothills. Has 



201 



