EVENING GR0SJ3EAK. 



523 



I know of no liirds which visit settled portions of the world which are so tame as the 

 Pine Grosbeaks. Specimens wliicli I have captured with a noose of wire, which I 

 have held in nix hand, as I climlicd up into the trees en which the l)irds were feedinu-. 

 have been so fearless as to ili^^ht on iin hands and slioidders in a lew iiours after I had 

 broUii'Lt them lioini'. 



GENUS XXIX. COCCUTIIUAUSTES. THE AMERICAN HAWFINCHES. 



Gen, Ch. Bill, excessively thick, being ne.^rly as high at base as it is long. Nostrils completely 

 concealed by tufts of feathers. Wings, very lung and forked, folding beyond the middle of the rather short, 

 forked tail. We have a single species of this large-billed Grosbeak within our limits. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES VESPERTIfSlA. 

 Evening Grosbeak. 



UESCRIPTIUN. 



Sp. Ch. Size, large. Form, very robust. Color. Adult male. General colur of body, lemon yellow, 

 more or less obscured by sooty, especially on the anterior portions, becoming quite black, on top of head, 

 leaving forehead, excejiting a narrow line at base of bill, 

 clear yeUow. Wings, souty brown, with a large patch of 

 soiled white on tertiaries and inner secondaries. Upper 

 tail covert sand tail, black. Female, similar, but' with 

 top of head brownish, and the clear yellow is obscured 

 with ashy. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Distinguished at once from any other North Ameri- 

 can species by the peculiar soiled yellow color and large 

 bill, with the conspicuous white patch on wings. Occurs 

 as a constant resident in western North America, north 

 to British Columbia, and the Saskatchewan, into Mexico. 

 East, occasionally as far as Massacliusetts. 



The sound-producing organs of this species are most peculiar. The sterno tracliealis, Fig. 00, d, s, s, 



Fig. 59. Adult Male Evening Grosbeak. 



c d e f 



Fig. 60. Sound-producing organs of the Evening Grosbeak. 



