PURPLE FINCH. 
281 
.constantly in the habit of erecting the feathers of the 
crown; they appear to be of a tyrannical and domi- 
neering 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 malicious 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 arri val, 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 muti- 
lation 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 other 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 de- 
scribed 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, are one 
and the same, viz. the purple finch, the subject of the 
present article. 
The purple finch is six inches in length, and nine in 
extent ; head, neck, back, breast, rump, and tail-coverts, 
dark crimson, deepest on the head and chin, and lightest 
on the lower part of the breast; the back is streaked 
with dusky ; the wings and tail are also dusky black, 
edged with reddish ; the latter a good deal forked ; round 
the base of the bill, the recumbent feathers are of a 
light clay or cream colour; belly and vent, white; 
