BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
69 
Carpodacus purpureus. Purple Finch. 517. 
This finch is a common summer resident that now and then remains 
all winter, but generally leaves late in October and returns early in 
April. The only noteworthy record that I have is of a pair which I 
observed here the fourteenth of February, 1898. They were evidently 
a couple of wanderers, for certainly no regular migration takes place 
here in Februar}-. The Purple Finch is an eminent vocalist; its 
morning song, which usually is delivered from the top of some tall elm, 
being one of the best I hear. 
Passer domesticus. English Sparrow. 
English Sparrows are pretty thoroughly disseminated throughout the 
state. I find them wherever there is even the suggestion of a village, 
and a public horse-shed without a flock of them is a curiosity. This 
village supports two clans of them — one, homing at the lower end, 
near the old sawmill, and the other in the vicinity of the college. 
This latter flock has roosted in the clump of pines in the corner of 
President Murkland's yard for a number of years. It is interesting to 
watch them retire. Naturally fussy, they are doubly so at bedtime, 
and it is only after much scolding that they finally settle down for the 
night. Although most of their food is taken from the street, they are 
glad to avail themselves of various seeds, when they are to be had 
without much hunting. I have known them to feed on ragweed seed 
in company with Redpolls all winter, making it their chief diet. In 
summer they eat insects to a limited extent. When spring 
advances the flocks are more or less broken and scattered for the 
purpose of breeding. Here at Durham they are forced to look out for 
their own nesting places, as there are not more than two or three bird 
houses in town. Such as are able select hollow trees, while others, 
construct bulky nests of straw in trees. Last spring I found two pairs 
located in hollow trees on the college grounds. A pair of Bluebirds 
contested for one of the holes, but they were unsuccessful. Whenever 
the Bluebirds came a Sparrow got inside and held the fort till the 
invaders were repulsed. The usurpation of the customary nesting 
sites of respectable native birds is the greatest crime that this miserable 
little Briton is guilty of. 
Loxia cuvirostra minor. American Crossbill. 521. 
This Crossbill while not nearly so rare as the next cannot be 
depended upon to appear at any particular time. During the past year 
I have recorded their presence on the following dates : April 23, 
