49 
CRIMSON-NECKED BULLFINCH. 
PYRRHULA FRONTALIS. 
Plate VI. Fig. 1, Male; Fig. 2, Female. 
Fringilla frontalis, Say, in Long s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains , II, p. 40. 
Philadelphia Museum , No. 6276, Male; No. 6277, Female. 
Much confusion exists in the works of naturalists respecting 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 Wil¬ 
son 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- 
* He was rather precipitate in asserting the Fringilla rosea and Loxia erythrina 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 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 specifically 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-headed Finch, as 
a variety of Fringilla rosea. 
VOL. i .—n 
