>JQ NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Dr. Heermann speaks of the song of this bird as clear and musical, and as 

 very closely resembling that of our Turdus migratorius. He describes its 

 nests as formed with very little care, of twigs loosely thrown together, and 

 lined with roots, placed in the branches of bushes. The eggs, four in num- 

 ber, he describes as of a greenish-blue ground, marked with irregular spots 

 of umber-brown, varying in intensity of shade. 



The song of the western species is described by Mr. Nuttall as fully equal, 

 if not superior, to that of the Eose-breasted. He met with it on the central 

 table-lands of the Eocky Mountains, along the upper branches of the Colo- 

 rado Eiver, where he found it frequenting the thick groves of the streams, 

 and where, tliroughout its dense forests, the powerful song and the inimitable 

 voice of this " most delightful Finch " cheered that naturalist amidst the 

 wildest desolation of that " forest primeval," where this superb vocalist made 

 the woods echo and re-echo to its untiring song. These notes, greatly resem- 

 bling those of its eastern relative, may be heard from early dawn almost 

 even to the close of the following night. These are described as loud, varied, 

 high-toned, and melodious, rising and falling with the sweetest cadence, fas- 

 cinating the listener most powerfully with sensations of a pleasing sadness, 

 its closing note seeming like a shrill cry of appealing distress, and then sink- 

 ing faintly on the ear. It is described as very shy and retiring in its habits, 

 and can be but very rarely observed closely while thus engaged in song. 

 On these occasions the bird is said to sit up conspicuously on a lofty bough, 

 near the summit of the tree, his throat swelling with the excitement, and 

 seeming to take a great delight in the sound of his own music. 



Mr. Sumichrast found this bird on the Plateau of Mexico, and also in the 

 alpine regions of Vera Cruz. It was found to the height of 8,300 feet, and 

 never lower than 4,000, 



The eggs of this species are of an oblong-oval shape, one end but slightly 

 more rounded than the other, and measure 1.10 of an inch in length by .65 

 in breadth. They have a bluish-green ground, blotched and splashed with 

 markings of a rusty-brown, for the most part more numerous about the 

 larger end. 



Genus GUIRACA, Swainson. 



Guiraca, Swainson, Zool. Jour. Ill, Nov. 1827, 350. (Type, Loxia ccerulea, L.) 

 Coccoborus, Swainson, Class. Birds, II, 1837, 277. (Same type.) 



Gen. Char. Bill very large, nearly as high as long; the culmen slightly curved, with a, 

 rather sharp ridge; the commissure conspicuously angulated just below the nostril, the 

 posterior leg of the angle nearly as long as the anterior, both nearly straight. Lower jaw 

 deeper than the upper, and extending much behind the forehead ; the width greater than 

 the length of the gonys, considerably wider than the upper jaw. A prominent knob in 

 the roof of the mouth. Tarsi shorter than the middle toe ; the outer toe a little longer, 

 reaching not quite to the base of the middle claw ; hind toe rather longer than to this 

 base. Wings long, reaching the middle of the tail ; the secondaries and tertials nearly 



