PURPLE FINCHES. 
69 
Wednesday, lOth. — More or less rainy and showery for tlie last 
day or two. It has thus far been raining steadily all day, which 
does not happen very often ; the fires are lighted again. Much 
too wet for walking, but it is pleasant to watch the growth of 
things from the windows. The verdure has deepened several 
shades during the last four-and-twenty hours ; all the trees now 
show the touch of spring, excepting the locusts and sumachs, in 
which the change is scarcely perceptible. Even the distant for- 
est trees now show a light green coloring in their spray, and the 
ploughed fields, sown with oats some ten days since, are chang- 
ing the brown of the soil for the green of the young blades. 
The rain seems to disturb the birds very little, they are hopping 
about everywhere in search of their evening meal. 
Thursday, 1 1 th. — Black and white creepers in the shrubbery ; 
they are a very pretty bird, so delicately formed. A large party 
of purple finches also on the lawn; this handsome bird comes 
from the far north at the approach of severe weather, and win- 
ters in different parts of the Union, according to the character of 
the season ; usually remaining about Philadelphia and New York 
until the middle of May. Some few, however, are known to pass 
the summer in our northern counties ; and we find that a certain 
number also remain about our own lake, having frequently met 
them in the woods, and occasionally observed them about the vil- 
lage gardens, in June and July. Their heads and throats are 
much more crimson than purple just now, and they appear to 
great advantage, feeding in the fresh grass, the sun shining on 
their brilliant heads ; more than half the party, however, were 
brown, as usual, the young males and females being without the 
red coloring. They feed in the spring upon the blossoms of flow- 
