AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
253 
come over it on some mountain of snow, I knew not how 
nor where, nor do I know to this day. So that, after all, 
they were trees that I saw, and trees of no great magni- 
tude neither; but their appearance to my eyes it is impos- 
sible to describe. I thought they flourished abroad, not 
for miles, but for hundreds of miles, to the utmost verge 
of the visible heavens. Such a day and such a night may 
the eye of a shepherd never again behold. 
[Shepherd’s Calendar. 
PURPLE FINCH. 
FEINGILL.fi P URF FEE A. 
[Plate XXII. Vol. 2. — on a branch of Sycamore.] 
Fringilla Purpurea , Gmel. Syst. r. 923. — Bouvreuil 
violet de la Caroline , Buff. iv. 395. — Purple Finch, 
Arct. Zool. ii. No. 25S. — Catesb. i. 41. — Lath. Syn. 
iii. 275, 39. — Crimson-headed Finch, Arct. Zool. ii. 
No. 257. — Latham, Syn. in. 275, 39. — Hemp-bird, 
Bartram, 291 — Fringilla Purpurea, Id. 291. — J. 
Doughty’s Collection. 
This is a winter bird of passage, coming to us in large 
flocks from the north, in September and October, great 
numbers remaining with us in Pennsylvania during the 
whole winter, feeding on the seeds of the poplar, button- 
wood, juniper, cedar; and on those of many rank weeds 
that flourish in rich bottoms, and along the margin of 
creeks. When the season is very severe they proceed to 
the south, as far at least as Georgia, returning north early 
in April. They now frequent the elm trees, feeding on 
the slender but sweet covering of the flowers; and as soon 
as the cherries put out their blossoms, feed almost exclu- 
sively on the stamina of the flowers; afterwards the apple 
blossoms are attacked in the same manner; and their de- 
predations on these continue till they disappear, which is 
usually about the 10th or middle of May. I have been 
told that they sometimes breed in the northern parts of 
New-York, but have never met with their nests. About 
the middle of September I found these birds numerous on 
Long Island, and round Newark, in New-Jersey. They 
fly at a considerable height in the air, and their note is a 
single chink, like that of the Rice-bird. They possess 
great boldness and spirit, and when caught, bite violently, 
and hang by the bill from your hand, striking with great 
fury; but they are soon reconciled to confinement, and in 
a day or two are quite at home. I have kept a pair of 
S s s 
these birds upwards of nine months, to observe their man- 
ners. 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 hempseed 
and cherry blossoms to all other kinds of food. Both male 
and female, though not crested, are almost constantly in 
the habit of erecting the feathers of the crown; they ap- 
pear 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, munch- 
ing 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 moment, and renew his out- 
rage 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 co- 
vered with so thick a skin, that it seemed as though it had 
been so for years. Whether this mutilation was occasion- 
ed 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 has 
been frequently repeated, that in many instances the same 
bird has been more than once described by the same per- 
son 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 natural- 
ists, 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, deepest on the head and chin, and lightest 
on the lower part of the breast; the back is streamed with 
dusky; the wings and tail are also dusky black, edged 
with reddish; the latter a good deal forked; round the base 
of the bill the recumbent feathers are of a light clay or 
cream colour; belly and vent white; sides under the 
wings streaked with dull reddish; legs a dirty purplish 
flesh colour; bill short, strong, conical, and of a dusky 
horn colour; iris dark hazle; the feathers covering the ears 
are more dusky red than the other parts of the head. This 
is the male, when arrived at its full colours. The female 
is nearly of the same size, of a brown olive or flax colour, 
streaked with dusky black; the head seamed with lateral 
