Their ground-colour is a bright emerald-green, sparingly marked with dots and a few streaks of black, accumulated near the apex, and some large marks of dull purple here and there over the whole surface. They measure seven-eighths and a quarter in length, four-eighths and a half in breadth, and are thus of an elongated form, rather pointed. The eggs have been procured in the State of Massachusetts by my friend Dr. It arrives there in May, and resides during the summer. RICHARDSON on the banks of the Saskatchewan river only, where it feeds on willow-buds. I have eaten many of them, and consider their flesh equal to that of any other small bird, excepting the Rice Bunting. I never observed this in Louisiana, where they remain long after the peach and pear trees are in full bloom. They are considered as destructive birds by some farmers, who accuse them of committing great depredations on the blossoms of their fruit-trees. They are seldom seen on the ground, although their motions there are by no means embarrassed. They frequently associate with the Common Cross-bills, feeding on the same trees, and like them are at times fond of alighting against the mud used for closing the log-houses. The food which they carried to their young consisted of insects, small berries, and the juicy part of the cones of the spruce pine. The song of the Purple Finch is sweet and continued, and I have enjoyed it much during the spring and summer months, in the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania, where it occasionally breeds, particularly about the Great Pine Forest, where, although I did not find any nests, I saw pairs of these birds flying about and feeding their young, which could not have been many days out, and were not fully fledged. It is remarkable that, at this season, males in full beauty of plumage are as numerous as during the summer months in far more northern parts, where they breed and you may see different gradations of plumage, from the dingy greenish-brown of the female and young to the richest tints of the oldest and handsomest male while along with these there are others which, by my habit of examining birds, I knew to be old, and which are of a yellowish-green, neither the colour of the young males, nor that of the females, but a mixture of all. In their consternation they suddenly started all together, and in the same direction, when, not knowing what birds they were, I shot at them and brought down two. I one night surprised a party of them roosting in a small holly tree, as I happened to be brushing by it. They frequently utter a single rather mellow clink, and are seen occupied in this manner until near sunset, when they again fly off to the interior of the forest. Towards sunset they reappear, fly about the skirts of the fields and along the woods, until, having made choice of a tree, they alight, and, as soon as each bird has chosen a situation, stand still, look about them, plume themselves, and make short sallies after flies and other insects, but without interfering with each other. They feed in this manner principally in the morning, and afterwards retire to the interior of the woods. Should this intimation be disregarded, the stronger or more daring, of the two drives off the other to a different part of the tree. Although they are quite friendly among themselves during their flight, or while sitting without looking after food, yet, when they are feeding, the moment one goes near another, it is strenuously warned to keep off by certain unequivocal marks of displeasure, such as the erection of the feathers of the head and the opening of the mouth. In doing this, they hang like so many Titmice, or stretch out their necks to reach the buds below. Immediately after this, every individual is seen making its way toward the extremities of the branches, husking the buds with great tact, and eating their internal portion. They alight all at once, and after a moment of rest, and as if frightened, all take to wing again, make a circuit of no great extent, and return to the tree from which they had thus started, or settle upon one near it. They fly compactly, with an undulating motion, similar to that of the Common Greenfinch of Europe. From the beginning of November until April, flocks of the Purple Finch, consisting of from six to twenty individuals, are seen throughout the whole of Louisiana and the adjoining States.
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