CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 207 
abolition of all artificial distinctions between genera united by 
almost imperceptible gradations, Sylvia would be joined to 
Turdus, Myrothera to Troglodytes, Lanius to Muscicapa, the 
whole of these would be confused together, and, in fact, orders 
and classes would be considered as genera ; and even the vast 
groups thus formed would be still observed to unite insepa- 
rably at their extremes, and we should finally be compelled to 
consider all living bodies, both animal and vegetable, as be- 
longing to one genus. This argument, however, may not 
convince every naturalist of the propriety of our arrangement, 
and they must, therefore, place the two species strictly accord- 
ing to nature in one genus, and consider the present as a 
Fringilla ; but how unnatural will then be the situation of 
Pyrrhula vulgaris, and Pyrrhula enucleator ! 
The inflated form of the bill, the curvature of both man- 
dibles, very apparent in the superior one, as well as the com- 
pression of both at tip, are obvious characters which distinguish 
the species of Pyrrhula from the Fringillew, in which both 
mandibles are nearly straight, and present a conic form on 
every side. 
Berries and seeds which they extract from the pericarp, 
buds and young shoots of different plants, constitute the food 
of the bullfinches. They generally frequent forests and bushy 
places, building their nests on small trees or low branches of 
large ones. ‘The females lay four or five eges. The greater 
number of the species moult twice a year; the sexes differ 
considerably in appearance. ‘They reside in cold and tempe- 
rate climates, with the exception of a few species that inhabit 
Africa and South America. 
The crimson-necked bullfinch is found in the district of 
country extending along the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
near the Arkansaw river, and has not been observed else- 
where. In the month of July, when our specimens were ob- 
tained, these birds occur in small scattered flocks, keeping 
mostly on the tops of the cotton-wood trees, on whose buds 
they partially feed. Their voice considerably resembles that 
of their relative the Pringilla purpurea. 
