! 20 PURPLE FINCH. 



birds numerous on Long Island, and round Newark in New- 

 Jersey. They fly at a considerable height in the air, and 

 their note is a single chink, like that of the rice bird. They 

 possess great boldness and spirit, and, when caught, bite 

 violently, and hang by the bill from your hand, striking with 

 great fury ; but they are soon reconciled to confinement, and 

 in a day or two are quite at home. I have kept a pair of 

 these birds upwards of nine months to observe their manners. 

 One was caught in a trap, the other was winged with the gun ; 

 both are now as familiar as if brought up from the nest by the 

 hand, and seem to prefer hemp-seed and cherry blossoms to 

 all other kinds of food. Both male and female, though not 

 crested, are almost constantly in the habit of erecting the 

 feathers of the crown ; they appear to be of a tyrannical and 

 domineering disposition, for they nearly killed an indigo bird, 

 and two or three others that were occasionally placed with 

 them, driving them into a corner of the cage, standing on 

 them, and tearing out their feathers, striking them on the 

 head, munching their wings, &c, till I was obliged to inter- 

 fere; and even if called to, the aggressor would only turn up 

 a malicious eye to me for a moment, and renew his outrage as 

 before. They are a hardy vigorous bird. In the month of 

 October, about the time of their first arrival, I shot a male, 

 rich in plumage, and plump in flesh, but which wanted one 

 leg, that had been taken off a little above the knee ; the wound 

 had healed so completely, and was covered with so 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 fre- 

 quent contact with bodies harder than itself. 



This bird is a striking 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 



