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.
Genus CHRYSOMITRIS, Boie.
Chrysomitris, Boie, Isis, 1828, 322. (Type, Fringilla spinus, Linn.)
Astragalinus, Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 159. (Type, Fringilla tristis, Linn.)
Hypacanthus, Cab. Mus. Hein. 1851, 161. (Type, Carduelis spinoides.)
