SPECIES 3. LOXM CJERULErf. 



BLUE GROSBEAK. 



[Plate XXIV. Fig. 6.] 



LINN. Syst. 304. LATHAM, Syn. in, p. 116. Jlrct. Zool.p. 351, 

 JVo. 217. CATESBY, Car. i, 39. BUFFON, in, 454. PI. Enl. 

 154. P BALE'S Museum, JVb. 5826. 



THIS solitary and retired species inhabits the warmer parts of 

 America, from Guiana, and probably farther south,* to Virginia. 

 Mr. Bartram also saw it during a summer's residence near Lan- 

 caster, Pennsylvania. In the United States, however, it is a scarce 

 species; and having but few notes, is more rarely observed. Their 

 most common note is a loud chuck; they have also at times a few 

 low sweet toned notes. They are sometimes kept in cages in Car- 

 olina; but seldom sing in confinement. The individual represen- 

 ted in the plate was a very elegant specimen, in excellent order, 

 though just arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. During 

 its stay with me, I fed it on Indian corn, which it seemed to 

 prefer, easily breaking with its powerful bill the hardest grains. 

 They also feed on hemp seed, millet, and the kernels of several 

 kinds of berries. They are timid birds, watchful, silent and ac- 

 tive, and generally neat in their plumage. Having never yet 

 met with their nest, I am unable at present to describe it. 



The blue Grosbeak is six inches long, and ten inches in extent; 

 lores and frontlet black; whole upper parts a rich purplish blue, 

 more dull on the back, where it is streaked with dusky; greater 

 wing coverts black, edged at the tip with bay; next superior row 

 wholly chestnut; rest of the wing black, skirted with blue; tail 

 forked, black, slightly edged with bluish, and 'sometimes mi- 



* Latham, n, p. 116. 



