CoUES's History of the Evening Grosbeak. 67 



Once seen, the Evening Grosbeak will not likely be forgotten, 

 even though we only glance at what was once a brilliant denizen of 

 the maple groves, and is now but a bunch of feathers stufted with 

 tow; for there is no bird of our country that in the least resembles 

 this striking likeness of a sunset. They say he has a near relative 

 in the land of Montezuma,* but he is otherwise quite an isolated 

 magnificence, his closest kinship being with the Hawfinch of Europe 

 [Coccothraustes mdgaris), whom he resembles in his stature and pi'o- 

 portions, though not at all in coloration. Nor has he the curious 

 construction of the wing-feathers that the typical Hawfinch displays, 

 these quills being as simple in form as they are in any other mem- 

 ber of the extensive family of the Finches. No very distant relatives 

 among our Fringilliche are such species as the Blue, the Cardinal, 

 the Rose-breasted, and other Grosbeaks, as well as those, like the 

 Pine, with which we have grown accustomed to see him associated 

 in our books and catalogues. 



He is rather a late aspirant to the questionable honors of our 

 literature, having remained unknown to fame all through the Wil- 

 sonian period, and until brought to our notice by Mr. William 

 Cooper, whose letter of introduction, originally published in the 

 " Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History," was soon ex- 

 tensively copied by the editors of other periodicals.t The bird thus 



* Hesperiphona abeillii (Less.) Bp. 



Guiraca abeilKi, h^ss., "Rev. Zoiil. 1839, 41 (Mexico)." 



Hcsperipho7ia abeillii, Bp., C. A. I, 1850, 505. — Sumich., Mem. Bost. Soc. 

 I, Ft. IV, 1869, 550. — B. B. & R., Hist. N. A. B., I, 1874, 449. 



Coccothrmistes abeillii, ScL. & Salv., Ibis, I, 1859, 19. — Scl., P. Z. S. 

 1859, 365.— Scl., Cat. A. B., 1862, 123. 



Hesperipliona vesperthia, Jun. ex Mex., Bp., C. A. I, 1850, 505. 



Coccothraustes maculipcnnis, Scl., P. Z. S. 1860, 251, pi. 163 (Vera Cruz). — 

 Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S. 1860, 398. 



+ Special papers on HcsperipJwiia vcspcrfiiia : — 



1825. Cooper, W. Description of a New Species of Grosbeak [Fringilla 

 vespcrtina, p. 220], inhabiting the Northwestern Territoiy of the United States. 

 Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., New York, I, Ft. II, 1825, pp. 219-222. (Read Janu- 

 ary 10, 1825.) 



This is the original description of the species, from the Schoolcraft specimen. 

 Saute Ste. Marie, Michigan, April, 1823. 



1826. Cooper, W. Description of a New Species of Grosbeak [Fringilla 

 vespcrtina, p. 136], inhabiting the Northwestern Territory of the United States. 

 Thomson's Ann. of Philos. (new series), XI, 1826, pp. 134-136. 



Reproduced from Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, I, 1825, pp. 219-222. 

 1826. Less[on, R. P.]. Description d'une espece nouvelle de Gros-bec 



