The eggs of this bird, which are not distinguishable from those of the Pacific coast form, have a delicate pale-blue ground-color, which is very fugitive, and fades even in the drawers of a cabinet. They are sparingly marked, chiefly around the more obtuse end, with spots and lines of black and a dark brown. They are of oval shape, elongate and pointed at one end, and measure .80 of an inch in length by .60 in breadth.
Carpodacus frontalis, var. rhodocolpus, Caban.
CALIFORNIA HOUSE-FINCH; RED-HEADED LINNET; BURION.
? 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.