_? Pyrrhula cruentata_, LESSON, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 101. _Carpodacus
rhodocolpus_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 166.—SCLATER, P. Z. S.
1856, 304. _Carpodacus frontalis_, BON. & SCHLEG. Mon. des Lox.
1850, tab. xvi, f. 1.—IB. Consp. 1850, 533.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am.
1858, 415 (in part).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 156. _House Finch_,
GRAYSON, Hesperian, II, 1859, 7, plate. _Carpodacus familiaris_,
HEERMANN, X, 50 (nest).
SP. CHAR. (♂ 12,973, Cape St. Lucas.) Head, neck, jugulum, breast,
upper part of abdomen and sides, and rump, bright carmine-scarlet,
dullest on the centre of the crown and auriculars; rest of the upper
parts brownish-gray, glossed with red except on the wings, which have
the feathers with distinctly lighter edges. Anal region, flanks, and
crissum white, the feathers with shaft-streaks of brown. Wing, 3.00;
tail, 2.60; culmen, .45; tarsus, .62; middle toe, .50.
_Female_ and _Juv._ similar to var. _frontalis_, but colors darker.
HAB. Coast region of Pacific Province, and peninsula of Lower
California.
The male described above represents about the average plumage of this
form; an extreme example is No. 26,546, Cape St. Lucas, which is
almost entirely of a wine-red color, this covering the whole lower
parts, except the anal region, and obliterating the streaks; the wings
even are tinged with red. Still, on the head the red (a wine-purple
tint) is brightest within those limits to which it is confined in the
normal plumage.
HABITS. This variety of the House Finch is a very common bird
throughout the Pacific coast, from Oregon to Mexico. Mr. Ridgway
states that he found this species the most common and familiar of all
the birds of the Sacramento Valley. It is a very common cage-bird,
being highly prized for its song, which in power is hardly inferior to
that of the Canary, while it far surpasses it in sweetness. Its
beautiful plumage also renders it still more attractive. The
peculiarly soft and musical _tweet_ of this bird is also very similar
to that of the Canary, and is very different from the common note of
the Purple Finch. This bird breeds very numerously among the
shade-trees in the streets of Sacramento, as well as among the oak
groves on the outskirts of that city. The males are very shy, but the
females, when their nest is disturbed, keep up a lively chirping in an
adjoining tree. The nest is generally situated near the extremity of a
horizontal branch of a small oak, usually in a grove, occasionally in
an isolated tree. In one instance it made use of an abandoned nest of
a Bullock’s Oriole, and in another of that of a Cliff Swallow.
Dr. Cooper speaks of this bird as being especially abundant in all the
southern portions of California, and also, according to Dr. Newberry,
throughout all the valleys northward into Oregon. It is a species that
is everywhere peculiar to the valleys, while the others of this genus
are equally confined to the wooded mountains. Dr. Cooper also met with
this species in the plains near the coast, where there are no plants
higher than the wild mustard, on the seeds of which they feed. They
also frequent the groves and the open forests on the summits of the
coast range, but in small numbers, in company with the _C.
californicus_. They at times feed on buds of trees, and seeds of the
cottonwood and other plants. It is most abundant among ranches and
gardens where, Dr. Cooper states, it does much mischief by destroying
seeds and young plants, fruit and buds. For these depredations even
its cheerful and constant song is not regarded as an adequate
compensation; and unlike the New-Mexicans in their treatment of its
kindred race, the California cultivators wage an unrelenting war upon
these birds.
At San Diego, Dr. Cooper found them building as early as the 15th of
March, and even a little earlier. Both the situation and the materials
of their nest vary. He has found them nesting in trees, on logs and
rocks, on the top rail of a picket fence, inside a window-shutter, in
the holes of walls, under tiles, on the thatch of a roof, in barns and
haystacks, and even between the interstices in the sticks of which the
nest of a Hawk had been made, and once in the old nest of an Oriole.
About dwellings they always seek the protection of man, and seem to be
quite unconscious of having deserved or incurred his enmity. The
materials of their nests are usually coarse grasses and weeds, with a
lining of hair and fine roots. They raise two, sometimes three, broods
in a season, and in the autumn assemble in large flocks, but migrate
very little, if any, to the south.
Dr. Cooper states that their songs are very different from those of
the other species. They are very varied and very lively, and are heard
throughout the year. They are easily kept as cage-birds, but soon lose
the beauty of their plumage in confinement, their bright purple colors
changing to a dirty yellow.
Nuttall did not observe any of this species in Oregon.
The eggs of this bird vary from four to six in number, and are of a
pale blue which readily fades into a bluish-white, and are marked with
spots and lines of a dark brown or black. They are of an elongate-oval
shape, and measure from .82 to .75 of an inch in length, with an
average breadth of .60.