120 PURPLE FINCH. 



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, tho 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 tear- 

 ing out their feathers, striking them on the head, munching their 

 wings, &c. &c. till I was obliged to interfere ; and even if called to, 

 the aggressor would only turn up a malicious eye to me for a mo- 

 ment, 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 tho 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 frequent contact with other 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 establish, that the 

 Crimson-headed Finch of Pennant and Latham, the Purple Finch 

 of the same and other naturalists, the Hemp-bird of Bartram, and 

 the Fringilla Rosea of Pallas, are one and the same, viz. the Purple 

 Finch, the subject of the present article. 



The Purple Finch is six inches in length, and nine in extent; 

 head, neck, back, breast, rump and tail coverts dark crimson. 



