372 
SINGING BIRDS. 
principally of different sorts of seeds ; they are also fond of 
those of rice, and grass of all kinds. At the period of breeding 
they sing with great sweetness and melody. 
This species is stiU considered a Southern bird ; but it regularly 
visits Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Kansas, and has been taken in 
Massachusetts and New Brunswick. 
PURPLE FINCH. 
LINNET. 
Caepodacus PUEPUREUS. 
Char. Male : no “ purple ; ” body rosy crimson, brightest on the 
head, darkest on the back, palest on the breast ; belly white ; wings and 
tail dusky ; everywhere streaked more or less with brown and gray. 
Female and young: without red; streaked brown and gray, sometimes 
with olive tint. 
Nest. Near a settlement and in some old pasture, open grove, park, or 
orchard ; composed of twigs, weed-stems, roots, and bark, lined with fine 
grass or hair. 
4“S ; P-tIc dull bluish green, variously marked with dark brown 
and lilac; 0.S5 X 0.60. 
These brilliant and cheerful songsters inhabit the Northern 
and Western States during the summer, where they rear their 
young. They appear to have a great predilection for resinous 
evergreens, pine, and spruce, and feed upon the berries of the 
juniper and red cedar as well as the seeds of the tulip-tree and 
others ; they likewise frequent gardens for the same purpose, 
and are particularly pleased with sunflower seeds and other 
oily kinds. When reduced to necessity they are observed to 
eat the buds of the beech and those of the fruit-trees, — prob- 
ably for the sake of the stamens contained in them, of which 
they are greedy when displayed in the opening blossoms. The 
stipules of the expanding buds of the elm, which are sweet 
and mucilaginous, as well as the young capsules of the willow 
in the spring, also make a common part of their fare. Their 
food in summer, however, consists principally of insects and 
juicy berries, as those of the honeysuckle and others. 
