264 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a young male after the first moult. 



Colour. — Head, neck, back, rump, breast, and belly aurora-red, with dark chocolate- 

 red and liver-brown central marks, less visible on the under plumage. Region of the bill 

 wood-brown. Upper tail coverts pitch-black, tipped with greyish-white borders. Vent and 

 under tail coverts brownish-white, with pointed black centres : flanks blackish-grey, glossed 

 with yellowish-brown. Wings and tail brownish-black, the former crossed by two broad 

 white bars. Bill dark horn-colour. 



Form, typical. Wings long, pointed, the first quill being the longest ; lesser quills trun- 

 cated, and deeply notched at the end. Tail rather short, deeply emarginate. Feet strong ; 

 tarsi very short, exceeded by the length of the hind toe and claw, which are much developed: 

 lateral toes nearly equal. All the claws strong, attenuated, sharp, and fully curved. 



As the bird acquires its mature plumage, the red parts change to greenish-yellow, the rump 

 assuming a purer yellow. The female and young, before their first moult, are greenish, with 

 yellowish rumps ; their bellies whitish, streaked with blackish-brown*. 









Dimensions 

















Of the young bird. 













Inch. 



Lin. 



Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 



Length, total 



. c 



3 



Length of bill to rictus . 



n 



Length of middle nail 



. 



5 



„ of tail 



2 



7 



,, of tarsus . . 



n 



,, of hind toe 



. 



8* 



,, of wing 



. 3 



6 



„ of middle toe . . 



5 



„ of its nail 



. 



H 



,, of bill above 







7 













[78.] 1. Fringilla purpurea. (Wilson?) Crested Purple Finch. 



Genus, Fringilla, Linn. 



Purple Finch. Wils. i., p. 119, pi. 7, f. 4 ? 



Fringilla purpurea. Bonap. Syn., p. 114, No. 191 ? 



We feel 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 have before us a female 

 specimen of one of these, which is not only smaller in all its proportions than 

 that brought home by the Expeditions, but has a bill more resembling that of 



* The Loxia curvirostra, Bonap. (L. Americana, Wils.), did not come under our notice, though Forster describes 

 a specimen from Hudson's Bay under this name. We have not enumerated it as an inhabitant of the fur-countries, 

 fearing that Forster might have agreed with Pennant in considering the white-winged species to be merely a variety 

 of the European curvirostra. — R. 



