CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 
145 
GENUS XV. — P YRRIIULA. 
35 . PYRRHULA FRONTALIS) BONAPARTE. 
CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE VI. FIG. I. MALE. FIG. II. FEMALE. 
Much confusion exists in the works of naturalists 
respecting 1 those finches and bullfinches that are tinged 
with red ; 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 described and permanently 
established by that author.* But several other allied 
species may be mistaken for the crimson-necked bull- 
finch ; two of these, belonging to the genus Pyrrhula , 
present so much analogy with the present species, 
judging from their descriptions, that we doubted the 
correctness of giving the latter a separate place, con- 
* He was rather precipitate in asserting the Fringilla rosea and 
Loxia erytlirina to be identical with his bird, as they are actually 
two very distinct species, 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 Frythrina 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 Erytlirina 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 
Erytlirina, were not specifically the same, he alluded to the 
Fringilla purpurea: Gmelin, as usual, in his miserable compila- 
tion, 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-headed finch, as 
a variety of Fringilla rosea . 
VOL. IV. 
K 
