Chrysomitris pinus.
11096 ♀
Sp. Char. Tail deeply forked. Above brownish-olive. Beneath whitish, every feather streaked distinctly with dusky. Concealed bases of tail-feathers and quills, together with their inner edges, sulphur-yellow. Outer edges or quills and tail-feathers yellowish-green. Two brownish-white bands on the wing. Length. 4.75; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.20. Sexes alike. Young similar, but the white below tinged with yellow, the upper parts with reddish-brown, and there are two pale ochraceous bands on the wing.
Hab. North America from Atlantic to Pacific; Vera Cruz, plateau and alpine region (Sumichrast, I, 550).
Specimens from all parts of North America appear to be the same, but there is a great deal of variation among individuals. No. 10,225 ♂, Fort Tejon, California, and 51,636, Colorado Territory, are almost entirely white beneath, the streaks being hardly observable. 32,765, Mexico, and 9,524, Washington Territory, are unstreaked medially. No. 11,096, Fort Bridger, has the streaks on the sides unusually broad, and very black.
In autumn and winter a reddish-brown tinge overspreads the upper parts.
Habits. Though classed with the Goldfinches of this country, the Pine Finch, in many respects more nearly resembles, in its habits and nidification, the Carpodaci. It is found throughout the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the winter it extends its irregular migrations into the Central States, as far as Northern California on the Pacific, and Southern Pennsylvania on the Atlantic. It breeds throughout the British Provinces, Northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Michigan, and thence to Washington Territory, in all the evergreen forests.
At Calais, Me., it is resident throughout the year, and breeds there, but is much more common in the winter than in the summer. In Western Maine, Professor Verrill observed it very common, both in the spring and in the fall, but never found it breeding. He found it very abundant about the Umbagog lakes in July, where it was evidently breeding. It breeds also abundantly among the White Mountains.
Mr. Ridgway first saw the Pine Finch on the East Humboldt Mountains,
where, through July and August, it was quite common, and where undoubtedly it breeds, as a young bird unable to fly was obtained. On the Wahsatch Mountains it was a very abundant species, inhabiting the pines as well as the groves of aspens in the alpine regions. It is gregarious at all times, flying in roving, screeching flocks. The notes it utters on all occasions resemble a very peculiar pronunciation of swe-er, given in a very sharp tone. When the flock suddenly takes to flight, this is changed to a more rattling outcry. A nest, containing no eggs, was found in an aspen-tree; and another, containing one egg, similar to those described elsewhere, was found in a fir-tree (Abies) situated near the extremity of a horizontal branch about twenty feet from the ground.
The Pine Finch is also a very common and resident bird in the plateau of Mexico and in the alpine regions of the State of Vera Cruz. Its common name there is Dominiguito montero. In the alpine regions Sumichrast states that it is found to the height of six thousand five hundred feet, and does not, to his knowledge, descend below three thousand feet. It most especially frequents the plateau.