328 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



This bird can be regarded only as an extremely rare 

 summer visitor in New England, Massachusetts apparently 

 being its northern limit. I have heard of two or three 

 specimens being found in this State, and it is possible that 

 others may have occurred here. 



The nest of this species is placed on the ground, usually 

 in a dry pasture or field, and most generally beneath a tuft 

 of grass or a small bush. It is loosely constructed of grass 

 and fine roots arranged circularly, and with a finer lining. 

 The eggs are four in number : they are of an ovoidal shape, 

 and are but little pointed. Their dimensions vary from .82 

 by .60 inch to .79 by .58 inch: their color is a delicate 

 greenish-blue, without spots or markings. 



I have had no opportunities for observing the habits of 

 this bird, and can present nothing of value with relation to 

 them. 



GUIRACA, SWAINSON. 



Guiraca, SWAINSON, Zool. Jour., III. (Nov., 1827) 350. (Type Loxia ccerulea, L.) 

 Bill very large, nearly as high as long; the culmen curved, with a rather sharp 

 ridge; the commissure conspicuously angulated just below the nostril, the posterior 

 leg of the angle nearly as long as the anterior, both nearly straight; lower jaw 

 deeper than the upper, and extending much behind the forehead; the width greater 

 than the length of the gonys, considerably wider than the upper jaw; a prominent 

 knob in the roof of the mouth; tarsi shorter than the middle toe; the outer toe a 

 little longer, reaching not quite to the base of the middle claw; hind toe rather 

 longer than to this base ; wings long, reaching the middle of the tail ; the seconda- 

 ries and tertials nearly equal; the second quill longest; the first less than the fourth; 

 tail very nearly even, shorter than the wings. 



GUIRACA LUDOVICIANA. Swainson. 

 The Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



Loxia Ludovidana, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 306. Wils. Am. Orn., II. 

 (1810) 135. 



Guiraca Ludovidana, Swainson. Phil. Mag., I. (1827) 438. 

 Fringilla Isidavidana, Audubon. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 166; V. 513. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Upper parts generally, with head and neck all round, glossy black; a broau 

 crescent across the upper part of the breast, extending narrowly down to the belly, 

 axillaries, and under wing coverts, carmin* ; rest of under parts, rump, and upper tail 

 coverts, middle wing coverts, spots on the tertiaries and inner great wing coverts, 



