Length: About 6¼ inches; a little smaller than the English sparrow.
Adult Male: Body largely raspberry- or rose-red, streaked with brown. For two seasons the male is a brown sparrowlike bird, with a yellowish-olive chin and rump; the third season his body seems to have been washed with a beautiful red, not purple, the color richest on his head, breast, and rump. Head slightly crested; bill thick, with bristles at nostrils; cheeks and back brownish; under parts grayish-white; wings and tail brownish, edged with red; tail forked.
Female: Decidedly sparrowlike; body grayish-brown, heavily streaked, lighter underneath; patch of light gray extending from eye, another from beak; wings dark grayish-brown, with indistinct gray bands. She is not unlike the song sparrow, except for the absence of the three black spots on breast and throat.
Call-note: A sharp, metallic chip.
Song: A clear, sweet, joyous warble.
Habitat: Woods, orchards, and gardens.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds in central and southern Canada, and northern United States, in North Dakota, central Minnesota, northern Illinois, and New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, the Pennsylvania mountains, and Long Island; winters from considerably north of the southern boundary of its breeding-range to the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida.
None of our smaller finches, except the goldfinch and indigo bunting are more beautiful in color than the PURPLE FINCH which wears a Tyrian purple, rather than the shade we commonly know.
Few members of the family sing more sweetly and joyously than this songster of the treetops. His delightful warble resembles somewhat the song of the rose-breasted grosbeak, and attracts attention wherever the bird is to be found. Several purple finches singing from neighboring elm trees at once, makes a May or June concert not easily excelled. Mr. Forbush says: “The song of the male is a sudden, joyous burst of melody, vigorous, but clear and pure, which no mere words can do justice. When, filled with ecstasy, he mounts in air and hangs with fluttering wings above the trees where sits the one who holds his affections, his efforts far transcend his ordinary tones, and a continuous melody flows forth, until, exhausted with his vocal efforts, he sinks to the level of his spouse in the treetop. This is a musical species, for some females sing, though not so well as the males.”[89]
The bird has been accused of eating the buds of fruit and shade trees, especially elms, and while he is at times guilty, he is not condemned by those who know his food-habits best, but commended for his fondness for weed seeds, especially ragweed, and for destroying plant-lice, cankerworms, cutworms, and ground beetles.[89]
His cousin, the HOUSE FINCH, or LINNET of California, who is brighter in color, is more beloved by tourists and more hated by fruit-growers than almost any bird in the state. Professor Beal writes: “This bird, like the other members of its family, is by nature a seed-eater, and before the beginning of fruit-growing in California probably subsisted upon the seeds of weeds, with an occasional wild berry. Now, however, when orchards have extended throughout the length and breadth of the state and every month from May to December sees some ripening fruit, the linnets take their share. As their name is legion, the sum total of the fruit that they destroy is more than the fruit-raiser can well spare. As the bird has a stout beak, it has no difficulty in breaking the skin of the hardest fruit and feasting upon the pulp, thereby spoiling the fruit and giving weaker-billed birds a chance to sample and acquire a taste for what they might not otherwise have molested. Complaints against this bird have been many and loud.... Whatever the linnet’s sins may be, grain-eating is not one of them. In view of the great complaint made against their fruit-eating habit, the small quantity found in the stomachs taken is somewhat of a surprise. When a bird takes a single peck from a cherry or an apricot, it spoils the whole fruit, and in this way may ruin half a dozen in taking a single meal. That the damage is often serious no one will deny. It is noticeable, however, that the earliest varieties are the ones most affected; also, that in large orchards the damage is not perceptible, while in small plantations the whole crop is frequently destroyed.”[90]
In spite of this troublesome habit, the linnet is a most engaging little bird. Its sweet bubbling song, not unlike that of the purple finch, adds much to the charm of California.
