448 



5 YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — PA S SERES — OSCINES. 



Fig. 304. — Rose-breasted Grosbeak, reduced. (Shep- 

 pard del. Nichols sc.) 



Z. ludovicia'na. (Lat. of Louisiana. Figs. 303, 304, 311.) Rose-breasted Song Gros- 

 beak. Adult $: Head and neck all around, and most of upper parts, black; rump, upper 



tail-coverts, and under parts white ; breast 

 and under wing-coverts exquisite carmine or 

 rt>se-red ; wings and tail black, variegated 

 with white; bill white; feet grayish-blue; 

 iris brown. 9 nbove, streaked with blackish 

 and olive-brown or Haxen-brown, with me- 

 dian white coronal and superciliary line ; 

 below, white, more or less tinged with ful- 

 vous and streaked with dusky; under iving- 

 corerts saffron-yellow ; upper coverts and 

 inner quills with a white spot at end ; bill 

 brown. Young ^ at first resembling 9 ; but 

 rt)se color appears with first full feathering 

 (if the first autumn. It then resembles the 

 adult winter ^, but has brown instead of 

 black quills and tail-feathers. At the first 

 spring moult it becomes black, white, and 

 rose as soon as some brownish bordering of 

 the black feathers disappears, apparently by 

 wearing off. Sexes of same size. Lengtli 

 7.75-8.50 ; extent 12.00-13 00 ; wing 3.90- 

 4.25; tail 3.25: tarsus 0.90. Eastern U. S. and British Provinces, N. to Labrador and region 

 of the Saskatchewan; W. in U. S. to the Red River Valley, and edge of the Missouri River 

 plains; winters extralimital in Cuba. Central Am., and northern S. Am. ; breeds frcnn the Mid- 

 dle States, Kansas, etc., northward, and in mountains S. to the Carolinas. A splendid bird ! 

 Few combine such attractions for eye and ear. Nest in bushes and low trees, a thin, fiat struc- 

 ture, chiefly composed of rootlets and other slender fibres; eggs 3-5, rarely only 2, 1.00 X 0.75, 

 dull greenish, fully splashed and dotted with various dark browns, laid in June. 

 Z. melanoce'phala. (Grr. /xeXas, neXavos, melas, melanos, black; KffjiaXr], kephale, head. Fig. 

 305.) Black-headed Song Grosbeak. Adult ^: Crown, sides of head, back, wings, and 

 tail black ; back usually varied with whitish or ciunamon-brown ; wings spotted with white 

 on ends of coverts, and usualh 

 also toward ends of quills, and 

 with a large white patch at base 

 of primaries ; several lateral 

 tail-feathers with large white 

 spots on inner webs near their 

 ends. Neck all around, rump, 

 and under parts rich orange- 

 brown, changing to bright pure 

 yellow on belly and under wing 

 coverts ; bill and feet dark gray- 

 ish-blue. Size of the last. The 

 9 and young diflPermuch as in 

 the last species, but may be rec- 

 ognized by the rich sulphur- 

 yelloio under wing-coverts; bill shorter and more tumid, 0,66-0.75 along culmen, 0.60 deep at 

 base. Adult 9 : Under parts like tliose of $, but paler, though belly and lining of wings are 



#r#"f#& 



Fio. 305. 



»\\h.h.m. 



■Black-headed Grosbeak, reduced. (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) 



