60 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Middle States northward. It is everywhere noted for its beauty and mu- 

 sical ability. This bird with a plump round form, the male with head 

 and neck black, bill whitish, wings and tail white and black, with the 

 breast and under wing-coverts rosy or carmine red, should be called the 

 Rose-bud of our North American birds. The parts which in the male 

 are black, are streaked with blackish and olive-brown in the female, and 

 the under wing-coverts .saffron yellow, which, though not so striking in 

 contrast, makes a bird of handsome appearance. The nest is placed in a 

 low tree on the edge of woods and on the bank of a stream. The latter 

 seems to be a favorite site. I found several nests in one season on the 

 banks of the Olentangy River, Ohio, placed in trees of dense foliage. 

 It is a shallow structure composed of small twigs, vegetable fibres 

 and grass. 



245. Black-headed Grosbeak — zamelodia melanocephala. Bluish- 

 green, blotched and sprinkled with markings of reddish and rusty-brown, 

 more numerous about the larger end, oblong-oval; invariably four in num- 

 ber; size .96 by .66. This bird occurs from the high Central Plains to the 

 Pacific, and from the northern portions of Washington Territory to the 

 table-lands of Mexico. Breeds throughout its United States range. Quite 

 common in California; begins nesting about the first of April — nesting 

 abundantly in the willow and water mootic copes near Santa Clara River 

 and among the live-oaks along the small streams and creeks. The nests 

 are placed from five to twenty feet from the ground, and composed of a 

 few slender twigs, weeds, grasses and rootlets. 



Hab. High Central Plains from the Yellowstone to the Pacific. Table-lands of Mexico. 



246. Blue Grosbeak — guir.aca C/Erulea. Light blue, when blown; 

 when exposed to light a little while fades into a dull white; oval; three, 

 sometimes four and five eggs are laid, size .98 by .62. The Blue Gros- 

 beak is more of a bird of the Southern States, but has also an extended 

 irregular distribution from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Texas, it 

 commences to build about the first part of May. Mr. T. D. Perry, in the 

 "Young Oologist" for November, 1884, says he has found eggs as early 

 as May 11, slightly incubated, near Savannah, Ga., and fresh eggs as late 

 as July 7, indicating that two, if not three broods were reared in a season. 

 The nest resembles that of the Painted Bunting, being invariably Hned 

 with fine brown rootlets, and occasionally it contains some horse hair. A 

 characteristic of the Blue Grosbeak's nest is that it almost invariably con- 

 cains pieces of snake-skin in the outer material of withered leaves and 

 plants. It is placed in blackberry bushes along road-sides and on 

 the border of woods. Mr. J. A. Singley, of Giddings, Texas, says that 



