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Genus Zamelodia. Grosbeaks. 



595. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. FR. LE GROS-BEC A. POITRINE ROSE. Zamelodia 

 ludomciana. L, 8-12. Plate XXXIV B. 



Distinctions. The male with his black back and rose-coloured bib is unmistakable. The 

 female is the only sharply streaked Grosbeak in eastern Canada. Young autumn males 

 are much like the female, but have a slight rosy suffusion showing through the buff colour 

 of the preast. They vary considerably, but indications of the more pronounced spring 

 plumages can usually be seen. 



Field Marks. A full view of either sex with their characteristic colorations and 

 large bills is distinctive enough. The black-backed male with contrasting white rump 

 and wing-bars can be recognized at a glance even as it vanishes in the brush. The female, 

 if not clearly seen, may be mistaken for the much smaller female Purple Finch; but the 

 unstriped underparts, more heavily marked head with conspicuous line over the eye, and 

 more prominent white wing-bars usually serve for its identification. 



Nesting. In bushes or trees 5 to 20 feet above the ground, in nest of fine twigs, weed 

 stalks, and rootlets. 



Distribution. Eastern America, north to well beyond settlement. Breeds in Canada 

 wherever found. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is one of our most beautiful birds and 

 best songsters. It prefers tangled thickets interspersed with open spaces and 

 large trees. It frequents thickets along rivers, edges of woodland 

 abutting on clearings, overgrown fence-lines, and sometimes orchards. 



Economic Status. If the number of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks could 

 be greatly increased on the farms the potato-bug scourge would soon dis- 

 appear. This bird is one of the few that eats potato-beetles and it takes 

 them in both adult and larval stages. One-tenth of the contents of the 

 stomachs examined consisted of potato-bugs and this species is equally 

 efficient against other insect pests. To increase the numbers of Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeaks may be difficult, but the next best thing is to conserve 

 what we have, protect them from preventable destruction, and see that 

 suitable nesting corners are left in waste corners of the farm and wood-lot. 

 In carrying out plans for clean cultivation and the elimination of waste 

 places, care should be taken that bits of shrubbery are left to afford shelter 

 for birds which without these sanctuaries must disappear. The preserv- 

 ation of the birds will more than compensate for the small losses entailed. 



Genus Guiraca. Blue Grosbeaks. 



597. Blue Grosbeak. FR. LE GROS-BEC BLEU. Guiraca caerulea. L, 7. A small 

 Grosbeak, coloured like a large Indigo Bunting, but not quite as bright and with chestnut- 

 rufous bars on wing and shoulder. 



Distinctions. The plumages in seasonal and sex variation closely follow those of the 

 Indigo Bunting, from which it can be told by size and its Grosbeak bill. In mixed plum- 

 age it may resemble the Bluebird even to the reddish breast, but the bill is entirely unlike 

 the bill of that bird. (See Figure 50, p. 26). 



Field Marks. The above will suggest field marks, but the Blue Grosbeak is too rare 

 in Canada to rely safely on sight identification. 



Distribution. Eastern North America, in the north stopping normally considerably 

 short of the Canadian border. 



SUBSPECIES. The subspecies of the Blue Grosbeak to be expected in Canada is 

 the eastern form, the Eastern Blue Grosbeak, the type race of the species. 



The records of this bird's occurrence in Canada are too fragmentary 

 for the species to be expected otherwise than as a rare and accidental 

 straggler. It can be hoped for only in the southern parts. 



