54 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



nearly as well as the male. I do not know whether it be owing to some 

 little jealousy on this score or not, that the male, when both occupy the 

 same cage, very often destroys the female. 



Species II. LOXIA LUDOVICIANA. 



ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



[Plate XVII. Fig. 2, Male.] 



Loxia Ludoviciana, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 861. — Red-breasted Grosbeak, Arct. Zool. p. 

 350, No. 212. — Red-breasted Finch, Id. 372, No. 245. — Le Rose gorge. Buff, hi., 

 460. — Gros-bec de la Louisiane, PL Enl. 153, fig. 2. — Lath. Syn. ii., 126. 



This elegant species is rarely found in the lower parts of Pennsyl- 

 vania ; in the state of New York, and those of New England, it is more 

 frequently observed ; particularly in fall when the berries of the sour 

 gum are ripe, on the kernels of which it eagerly feeds. Some of its 

 trivial names would import that it is also an inhabitant of Louisiana; 

 but I have not heard of its being seen in any of the Southern States. 

 A gentleman of Middleton, Connecticut, informed me, that he kept one 

 of these birds for some considerable time in a cage, and observed that 

 it frequently sung at night, and all night ; that its notes were extremely 

 clear and mellow, and the sweetest of any bird with which he is 

 acquainted. 



The bird from which the figure on the plate was taken, was shot, late 

 in April, on the borders of a swamp, a few miles from Philadelphia. 

 Another male of the same species was killed at the same time, consider- 

 ably different in its markings ; a proof that they do not acquire their 

 full colors until at least the second spring or summer. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is eight inches and a half long, and 

 thirteen inches in extent ; the whole upper parts are black except the 

 second row of wing coverts, which are broadly tipped with white ; a spot 

 of the same extends over the primaries, immediately below their coverts ; 

 chin, neck and upper part of the breast black ; lower part of the breast, 

 middle of the belly, and lining of the wings, a fine light carmine or 

 rose-color ; tail forked, black, the three exterior feathers, on each side, 

 white on their inner vanes for an inch or more from the tips ; bill, like 

 those of its tribe, very thick and strong, and pure white ; legs and feet 

 light blue; eyes hazel. The young male of the first spring has the 

 plumage of the back variegated with light brown, white and black ; a 

 line of white extends over the eye ; the rose color also reaches to the 

 base of the bill where it is speckled with black and white. The female 



