46 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
dusky. Length, 6.50 ; wing, 3.60. Hab. Mountain regions of the 
Middle Province, south, through the table-lands and alpine regions of 
Mexico, to Mirador. ( Cassin's Finch.') 
b. £. Crown scarcely brighter purple than the rump or throat. 9. With 
conspicuous superoral and maxillary stripes. 
2. C. purpureus. Crown purple ; rest of head, breast, rump, etc., 
nearly similar in tint ; lower tail-coverts without dusky shaft-lines. 
Purple tints of a rosy carmine cast ; first quill longer than the 
fourth. Length, 6.25 ; wing, 3.34. Hob. Eastern Province of 
North America. {Purple Finch.) .... var. purpureus. 
Purple tints of a darker purplish-rose cast ; first quill shorter than 
the fourth. Length, 6.20 ; wing, 3.20. Hab. Pacific Province of 
North America. ( California Purple Finch.) var. cal if 0 rnicus. 
K« Culmen much curved. Tail and wing feathers edged with grayish in the 
male. 
3. C. frontalis. £. A frontal and superciliary band of crimson; a 
patch of same on the rump, and another on the throat and jugulum ; ab- 
domen and crissum streaked with dusky. Length about 5.75. 
£. Red restricted to the portions mentioned above. 
Red of an intense carmine tint, sharply defined, and strictly 
restricted within the limits indicated. Hab. Plateau of Mexico 
{Mexican Purple Finch.) .... var. hcemorrhous . 
Red of a lighter carmine, and with a greater or less tendency 
to escape its boundaries. Wing, 3.10. Hab. Middle Province 
of the United States. {House Finch.) . . var. frontalis. 
£. Red not restricted, but spread over the crown, tingeing the 
back and other portions, excepting wings and tail. 
Red tint varying from scarlet to wine-red. Wing, 3.00. 
Hab. Pacific Province of United States, including the penin- 
sula of Lower California. ( California House Finch.) 
var. r ho do colpus. 
2 Genus CHRYSOMITHIS, Boie. (Page 44.) “ 
Species and Varieties. 
Common Characters. Colors generally yellow ; the crown, throat, back, 
wings, and tail black, varied sometimes with white. Females without the 
bright markings of the male. Nest in bushes or on trees; eggs plain pale- 
greenish or bluish-white, except in C. pinus , where they are decided green 
and spotted. 
A. No streaks anywhere on plumage ; base of tail-feathers black or white. 
Sexes dissimilar. {Chrysomitris.) 
a. No yellow on the wings. 
1. C. tristis. Inner webs of tail-feathers always whitish terminally 
(except in Juv.), £. Forehead and crown, wings and tail, deep black ; 
rest of plumage, including the back, rich lemon-yellow; tail-coverts 
white. 9 . Body grayish above, dingy whitish beneath, stained with 
yellow ; no black on head ; wings and tail duller black. Juv. Fulvous- 
umber above, with markings of reddish-ochraceous on the wings ; be- 
neath, dilute-yellow washed with fulvous. Length, 5.25; wing, 3.00. 
Hab. Whole of temperate North America. {Yellow- Bird ; Thistle- 
Bird.) 
