120 
PURPLE FINCH. 
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 
these birds upwards of nine months to observe their manners. 
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 hemp seed 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 appear 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 tearing out their feathers, striking them on the 
head, munching their wings, &c. till I was obliged to interfere ; 
and, even if called to, the aggressor would only turn up a mali- 
cious eye to me for a moment, and renew his outrage 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 covered with so thick a skin, 
that it seemed as though it had been so for years. Whether 
this mutilation was occasioned 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 bodies harder than itself. 
This bird is a striking example of the truth of what I have 
frequently repeated in this work, that in many instances the 
same bird has been more than once described by the same 
person 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 naturalists, 
the Hemp Bird of Bartram, and the Fringilla rosea of Pallas, 
