246 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



hoppers, crickets, ants, flies and numerous larval forms. Fruits of the 

 cedar and mulberry trees, also strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, 

 wild grapes and other small fruits may be included among- their favorite 

 articles of diet. This bird, with its large and powerful bill, operated by 

 strong muscles of its head, can readily break into fragments the hard 

 grains of maize, as well as the large seeds of different kinds on which it 

 subsists. Its known ability in this particular has earned for it, in some 

 places, the local name of Bed Corncracker. 



GENUS HABIA REICHENBAOH. 

 Habia ludoviciana 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak; Potato-bus bird. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 35, adults and young}. 



Length about 8inches ; extent about 13 inches. Young males in late summer and 

 fall have rose and red markings on breast, and under wing-coverts more or less 

 distinct. The female has lining of wings and axillaries saffron yellow. 



Habitat. Eastern United States and southern Canada, west to the eastern border 

 of the plains; in winter, to Cuba, Central America and northern South America. 



In eastern Pennsylvania the Eose-breasted Grosbeak is found as a 

 regular, though usually not a common, visitant during migrations in May 

 and September, when this species is mostly seen in small parties of 

 from five to a dozen each. In the spring, while passing northward (they 

 breed for the most part north of Pennsylvania), the males arrive nearly 

 a week in advance of the females, but in the fall both sexes, according 

 to my observation, migrate together. Mr. Benj. M. Ever hart, of West 

 Chester, says that twenty-five years ago this species was a rather com- 

 mon summer resident in Chester and Delaware counties, where he has 

 repeatedly found their nests, eggs and young. In both of these districts 

 the Rose-breasts are now rarely found in the summer time. Although 

 these bright-colored* and sweet-voiced songsters have apparently 

 abandoned most of their summering resorts, in our eastern districts, 

 many of their number find a congenial summer abode in the western 

 and northwestern parts of our state, particularly in Crawford and Erie 

 counties, where, my highly esteemed friend, Mr. Geo. B. Sennett, assures 

 me, these birds are regular and rather plentiful summer residents, nest- 

 ing in low trees and bushes. The nest is a thin, flattened structure, made 

 up of rootlets, small twigs and dried grasses ; the dull greenish-white 

 eggs, spotted with brown, are three or four in number and measured about 

 one inch by three-fourths of an inch. These birds, while sojourning here, 

 frequent chiefly groves and forests ; apple orchards and gardens are also 

 sometimes visited by them. It is said that in some sections of Crawford 



* Two or three years are, it Is said, required before the males acquire their full beauty, and it is also 

 stated that the adult males in the late summer and fall lose much of their black and become more or less 

 streaked with brownish tints. 



