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328 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
This bird can be regarded only as an extremely rare 
summer visitor in New England, Massachusetts apparently 
being its northern limit. I have heard of two or three 
specimens being found in this State, and it is possible that 
others may have occurred here. 
The nest of this species is placed on the ground, usually 
in a dry pasture or field, and most generally beneath a tuft 
of grass or a small bush. It is loosely constructed of grass 
and fine roots arranged circularly, and with a finer lining. 
The eggs are four in number: they are of an ovoidal shape, 
and are but little pointed. Their dimensions vary from .82 
by .60 inch to .79 by .58 inch: their color is a delicate 
greenish-blue, without spots or markings. 
I have had no opportunities for observing the habits of 
this bird, and can present nothing of value with relation to 
them. 
GUIRACA, Swatnson. 
Guiraca, SwAtnson, Zool. Jour., III. (Nov., 1827) 850. (Type Lozxia cerulea, L.) 
Bill very large, nearly as high as long; the culmen 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 seconda- 
ries and tertials nearly equal; the second quill longest; the first less than the fourth; 
tail very nearly even, shorter than the wings. 
GUIRACA LUDOVICIANA, — Swainson. 
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 
Loxia Ludoviciana, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 306. Wils. Am. Orn., II. 
(1810) 135. 1 
Guiraca Ludoviciana, Swainson. Phil. Mag., I. (1827) 438. 
Fringilla Ludoviciana, Audubon. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 166; V. 518. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Upper parts generally, with head and neck all round, glossy black; a broaa 
crescent across the upper part of the breast, extending narrowly down to the belly, 
axillaries, and under wing coverts, carmine; rest of under parts, ramp, and upper tail 
coverts, middle wing coverts, spots on the tertiaries and inner great wing coverts, 
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