CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 
307 
and, in fact, their great resemblance to each other, and their 
intricate synonymy, render them very difficult to elucidate. 
The only species in Wilson’s work with which the present may 
be confounded is the Fringilla purpurea^ a bird closely related 
to ours, and for the first time well figured and permanently 
established by that author.* But several other allied species 
may be mistaken for the crimson-necked bullfinch ; two of 
these, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula, present so much ana- 
logy with the present species, judging from their descriptions, 
that we doubted the correctness of giving the latter a separate 
place, considering it identical with Pyrrhula erytlirina of Tem- 
minck, whose description agrees better with it than that of any 
other. Yet, in addition to some differences discoverable by 
comparing the crimson-necked bullfinch with his description, 
we cannot admit, that an Arctic bird of the old continent, 
known to visit even the more northern portion of the temper- 
ate climates only during very cold winters, and then not very 
regularly, should be found, in the month of July, on the sul- 
try plains of the Arkansaw, and of course breeding there. We 
therefore conclude that our bird is not the erytlirina^ although 
we regret our inability to give differential characters, having 
* He was rather precipitate in asserting the Fringilla rosea and Loxia ery~ 
thrina to he identical with his bird, as they are actually two very distinct spe- 
cies, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula, and proper to the old continent, whilst 
the purpurea is a true Fringilla, and peculiar to America. To those who have 
not critically investigated the subject, it may appear somewhat inconsistent to 
state, that the erythrina is not an inhabitant of this continent, when it is a well- 
known fact, that many authors speak of it as an American bird. This apparent 
contradiction may be readily removed by considering what bird those authors 
alluded to when they stated the erythrina to be a native of North America. 
When Latham expressed a doubt in his Synopsis, whether the birds in the 
neighbourhood of New York, so much resembling the erythrina, were not spe- 
cifically the same, he alluded to the Fringilla purpurea : Gmelin, as usual, in his 
miserable compilation, inserted this doubt of Latham as a certainty. As to the 
crimson-headed finch of Pennant, it is evidently the purpurea, thus excusing, 
in part, the strange assertion of Wilson. Latham also committed an error in his 
index, by placing the Loxia erythrina of Pallas and Gmelin, his own crimson- 
head finch, as a variety of Fringilla rosea. 
