PINE FINCH. 
265 
cribed by Mr Catesby,* who says that the back part of 
the head is a dirty green, &c. This description must 
have been taken while the bird was changing its plumage. 
At the approach of fall, not only the rich yellow fades 
into a brown olive ; but the spot of black on the crown 
and forehead becomes also of the same olive tint. Mr 
Edwards has also erred in saying that the young male 
bird has the spot of black on the forehead ; this it 
does not receive until the succeeding spring. The 
figure in Edwards is considerably too large ; and that 
by Catesby has the wings and tail much longer than 
in nature, and the body too slender, — very different 
from the true form of the living bird. Mr Pennant 
also tells us, that the legs of this species are black ; 
they are, however, of a bright cinnamon colour ; but 
the worthy naturalist, no doubt, described them as he 
found them in the dried and stuffed skin, shrivelled up 
and blackened with decay ; and thus too much of our 
natural history has been delineated. 
176. FR1NGILIA PINUS, WILSON. — PINE FINCH. 
WILSON, PLATE XVII. FIG. I. — IN WINTER PLUMAGE. 
This little northern stranger visits us in the month 
of November, and seeks the seeds of the black alder, on 
the borders of swamps, creeks, and rivulets. As the 
weather becomes more severe, and the seeds of the 
pinus Canadensis are fully ripe, the sebirds collect in 
larger flocks, and take up their residence, almost exclu- 
sively, among these trees. In the gardens of Bush 
Hill, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, a flock of 
two or three hundred of these birds have regularly 
wintered many years ; where a noble avenue of pine 
trees, and walks covered with fine white gravel, furnish 
them with abundance through the winter. Early in 
March they disappear, either to the north, or to the 
pine woods that cover many lesser ranges of the Alle- 
ghany, While here, they are often so tame as to allow 
* Nat . Hist. Car . vol. i, p. 43. 
