BIRDS—FEINGILLIDAE—CARPODACUS FRONTALIS. 
417 
under parts are much more streaked. These two specimens I am inclined to consider as distinct 
lrom C. frontalis , and probably entitled to the name of haemorrhous, Wagler. 1 
The Carpodacus rhodocolpus of Cabanis resembles very closely some of those California speci¬ 
mens mentioned as so similar to C. purpureus. Should they he distinct, Cabanis’ name might 
with propriety be applied to them. I scarcely think, however, that the name can stand. 
The Carpodacus frontalis of New Mexico is readily distinguished from C. purpureus , by the 
fact that the middle of the crown is not continuously red, the ear coverts and under the eye 
brown, not red ; the hack and wings are uniform brown, the feathers with lighter edges, the 
red of the rump quite sharply defined, instead of having the red over the back and wings The 
belly is strongly streaked with brown, instead of being nearly white. The size is considerably 
less ; the hill shorter, broader, and considerably more convex and curved. 
C. cassinii has the back more glossed with red and strongly streaked with dark brown, instead 
of being nearly uniform ; the belly is very little streaked, instead of strongly so. The size is 
much larger ; the hill larger, and straighter. 
Note. —A series of Carpodacus frontalis recently collected at Fort Tejon, by Mr. Yesey, 
strengthens the impression that there is really hut one species from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific, and that this varies greatly in the tint and extent of the red with age and season. 
Thus, in the most highly colored specimen, 10219, the hack is so much tinged with red as to 
connect that on the head and rump, the centre of the crown being scarcely less intense than 
the sides and front. Beneath, the bright red extends to the middle of the belly, and farther 
back on the sides. In 10220 the hack has only the faintest possible gloss of red ; the middle 
of the crown less deeply colored. No. 10221 has the red of the under parts restricted rather 
abruptly to the fore part of the breast. In 10222, a young male, the red extends further 
behind, hut there is none on the rump. All these are summer skins. No. 10223, an autumnal 
skin, has the same distribution of red as in 10219, hut it is as uniform and continuous to the 
middle of the belly as in the purple finch. The colors are duller, however, and the whole 
plumage has a softened character ; 10224 has the red on the belly more restricted, and 
almost none on the rump. 
1 Carpodacus haemorrhous, Sclater. 
Fringilla haemorrhoa, “ Licht.” Wagler, Isis, 1831, 525. Licht. Preis-Verzeich. 1831, sp. 57. 
Pyrrhulinota haemorrhoa, Bp. Comptes Rendus, 1856. 
Carpodacus haemorrhous, Sclater, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1856, 304. 
Several specimens of Carpodacus in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, probably from Mexico or Lower California, 
although labelled North America, agree with numbers 2706 and 4563 in the very precise and sharp definition of the red colors. 
The forehead for less than the length of the bill, a broad superciliary stripe extending as far behind the eye as tiie tip of the bill 
is in front of it, the base of the lower jaw, and the chin and throat, but not the breast, with the rump but not the upper tail 
coverts, are crimson. And no where else (in five specimens) is there any indication of a reddish gloss, not even in the middle 
of the crown, on the neck, or back. The width of the red on the throat is scarcely one-fourth the circumference of the neck. 
Upon a re-examination of the subject, I am by no means sure that the bird just referred to is the true Fringilla haemorrhous 
of Wagler, which seems nearer to the true frontalis. It may possibly not yet have received a name. 
53 b 
