Genus HABIA Reichenbacii. 

 HABIA LUDOVICTANA (Linn.). 



240. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. (595) 



Af/it/l ina/e: — Witli head and neck all round and most of the upper parts, 

 black ; the rump, uppei' tail coverts and under parts, white ; the breast and 

 under wing coverts, exquisite carmine or rose-red ; wings and tail, black, 

 variegated with white ; bill, pale ; feet, dark. Female: — Above, streakecf with 

 blackish and olive or flaxen brown with median white coronal and superciliary 

 line ; below, white, more or less tinged with fulvous and streaked with dusky ; 

 under wing coverts, safl'ron-yellow ; upper coverts and inner quills with a white 

 spot at end ; bill, brown. Young malex : — At first resemlile the female. Length, 

 74-8i ; wing, aV>out 4 ; tail, about 3|. 



Hab. — Eastern United States and Southern Canada, west to the eastern 

 border of the Plains, south in winter to Cuba, Central America and Northei'n 

 South America. 



Nest, in a low tree, composed of twigs, vegetable fibre and grass, rather 

 loosely put together. 



Eggs, three or four, greenish-blue, tliickly spotted with reddish-brown. 



This robust and gaily attired songster arrives from the south 

 about the 10th of May, and soon its rich, rolling song is heard in the 

 trees and thickets where it spends the stimmer. It breeds regularly 

 along the southern bordei' of Ontario, and has also been found in 

 Labrador and in the Red River Valley. Its favoi'ite haunts are 

 along the wooded l)anks of streams, where, even at noonday, when 

 most other birds are silent, the male, in the shade of the luxuriant 

 foliage, cheers his mate during the tedious hours of incubation with 

 the song she loves to hear. The food of the species consists of seeds, 

 buds and berries, but it also takes a variety of insects, and is one of 

 the few birds which visit the potato patch and snap up the potato 



