EVENING GROSBEAK. 367 



expression of the far-famed Philomel, nor yet those contrasted 

 tones, which, in the solemn stillness of the growing night, fall 

 at times into a soothing whisper, or slowly rise and quicken 

 into a loud and cheering warble. A strain of almost senti- 

 mental tenderness and sadness pervades by turns the song of 

 the Nightingale ; it flows like a torrent, or dies away like an 

 echo ; his varied ecstasies poured to the pale moonbeams, 

 now meet with no response but the sighing zephyr or the ever- 

 murmuring brook. The notes of our Cardinal are as full of 

 hilarity as of tender expression ; his whistling call is uttered in 

 the broad glare of day, and is heard predominant over most of 

 the feathered choir by which he is surrounded. His respond- 

 ing mate is the perpetual companion of all his joys and cares ; 

 simple and content in his attachment, he is a stranger to 

 capricious romance of feeling, and the shades of melancholy, 

 however feeble and transient, find no harbor in his preoc- 

 cupied affections. 



The Cardinal occurs regularly but sparingly in southern New 

 England, and it has been occasionally seen in Massachusetts and 

 northward. Two examples visited Halifax, N. S , in 1871. It is 

 quite common in Ohio, and has been taken, across the lake, in 

 Ontario. 



EVENING GROSBEAK. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES VESPERTINA. 



Char. Dusky olivaceous, shading to yellowish on the rump; fore- 

 head, line over the eyes, and under tail-coverts, yellow ; crown, wings, 

 and tail black ; secondaries mostly white; bill greenish yellow, conspicu- 

 ously large. Female differs slightly from the male, but is readily identi- 

 fied. Length about 7>< to 8 inches. 



Nest. In the deep forest, usually on a branch of a tall tree, sometimes 

 in low bush; composed of twigs and roots, lined with roots or hair. 



Eggs. 4-? ; pale dull green, marked with pale brown spots. 



This beautiful species inhabits the solitudes of the North- 

 western interior, being met with from the extremity of the 

 Michigan Territory to the Rocky Mountains. It is not un- 

 common towards the upper extremity of Lake Superior and 



