ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 265 



the Thrushes. About 8 inches long ; the head, neck and 

 upper parts are black ; bill, rump, under parts and mark- 

 ings on wings arid tail, white ; breast, rose-carmine ; lining 

 under the wings, delicate rose. The female has the upper 

 parts light brown, streaked with darker ; a line over the eye, 

 a slight one below it, and one over the middle of the crown; 

 tips of wing coverts, and under parts, white ; breast and 

 sides streaked and spotted with brown ; bright yellow under 

 the wings, and sometimes a tinge of the same on the upper 

 part of the breast. I have also seen a rose-tint mixed with 

 the yellow under her wings, and a most delicate tinge of the 

 purest rose on the white rump of the male. The large bill 

 of this bird, so strongly characterizing it and the group to 

 which it belongs, is in such harmony with the general shape 

 of the head as in nowise to mar its beauty. Indeed, the 

 fleshy-tinged whiteness of this prominent organ rather adds 

 to the elegance of the species. 



The stranger to our sylvan retreats will scarcely meet 

 this charming bird; for its most agreeable summer 

 resort is in swampy woods, where the shadows are 

 deepened by tangled vines and a rank undergrowth, 

 where flowers are large and deeply tinted from rich vege- 

 table molds, and where the fragrant atmosphere is cool and 

 moist. Often it is found in the thickets forming a sort of 

 border-line between field and forest, and often in the lofty 

 arcades of the densest and darkest woodlands. In such 

 places, and rather local in his distribution, the male makes 

 his appearance in Western New York from the first to the 

 tenth of May; and stretching himself on tiptoe, delivers, in 

 a hurried and spirited manner, his rare and delightful 

 melody, giving one the impression of an exalted and unut- 

 terable joy in a language which means much, but leaves 

 much behind. Sometimes several appear together, vying 



