

SPECIES 2. LOXM 



ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 

 [Plate XVII. Fig. 2. Male.] 



Loxia Ludoviciana, GMKL. Syst. i, p. 861. Red-breasted Gros- 

 beak, Arct. Zool p. 350, JVo. 21 2. Red-breasted Finch, Id. 372, 

 JV*o. 245. Le Hose gorge, BUFF, m, 460. Gros-bec de la 

 Louisiam, PI Enl. 153, jig. 2. -LATH. Syn. n, 126 PEALE'S 

 Museum, No. 5806, male 5807, female- 5806 .fl, mate o/ one 

 year old. 



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THIS elegant species is rarely found in the lower parts of 



Pennsylvania; in the state of New York, and those of New Eng- 

 land, it is more frequently observed; particularly in Fall when 

 the berries of the sour gum are ripe, on the kernels of which it 

 eagerly feeds. Some of its trivial names would import, that it 

 is also an inhabitant of Louisiana; but I have not heard of its 

 being seen in any of the southern states. A gentleman of Mid- 

 dleton, Connecticut, informed me, that he kept one of these 

 birds for some considerable time in a cage, and observed that it 

 frequently sung at night, and all night: that its notes were ex- 

 tremely clear and mellow, and the sweetest of any bird with 

 which he is acquainted. 



The bird from which the figure on the plate was taken, was 

 shot, late in April, on the borders of a swamp, a few miles from 

 Philadelphia. Another male of the same species was killed at 

 the same time, considerably different in its markings; a proof 

 that they do not acquire their full colours until at least the se- 

 cond spring or summer. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is eight inches and a half long, 

 and thirteen inches in extent; the whole upper parts are black 

 except the second row of wing coverts, which are broadly tipt 



