FAMILY FringUlldx* 



his brilliant feathers. Mr. F. E. L. Beal writes: " On 

 account of this attractive plumage the birds are highly 

 pri/rd for ladies' hats, and consequently have been hhot 

 in season and out, till the wonder is not that there are so 

 few, but that any remain at all." Head, throat, and up- 

 per parts jet black; breast marked with a triangle (point 

 down) of rose-red, or deep rose madder, which color ex- 

 tends beneath the wings over the under coverts, and 

 rarely down the centre of the white underparts; lower 

 back white tipped with black; primaries white at the base; 

 the outer feathers of the tail tipped with white on the 

 inner webs. Female marked like a Sparrow; upper 

 parts gray -brown, pale ochre, and brownish gray; a buff 

 line on the crown, and a dull white one over each eye; 

 wings and tail darker gray-brown; light dull orange un- 

 der the wings replaces the rose color of the male; upper 

 wing coverts tipped with white; under parts light buff 

 streaked with gray-brown. Nest loosely woven of root- 

 lets, twigs, and plant fibres; lodged in thick under- 

 growth, or in trees from five to twenty feet from the 

 ground. Egg pale greenish blue with a variety of brown 

 narkings. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are supposed to be 

 common throughout eastern North America as far north 

 as Maine; they winter in Central and South America. 

 These birds, however, are unevenly distributed. I have 

 found them far more frequently in the vicinities of 

 Boston, Cambridge, Mass., and Morristown, N. J., than 

 in Campton, N. H. Mr. Scott also says the birds "are 

 commonly found in some of our thickly built suburban 

 towns, where, undisturbed by the vicinity of man, they 

 seem as much at home as in the wilder woodlands. 

 Such conditions I have observed in the town of Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., where this is an almost abundant garden 

 bird; and in South Orange, N. J., and vicinity, much 

 the same is the case." The food of the bird is largely 

 composed of beetles and a variety of injurious insects. 

 He has a great liking for the potato beetle. 



The song of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak has been gen- 

 erally described as similar to that of the Robin, but this 

 similarity, from a musical point of view, is altogether to- 

 superficial to deserve serious attention. I most emphati- 

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