254 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



seven and nine feet high in unnamed saplings. According to Cairns, the eggs are 

 laid in May. They are greenish blue in ground-color, more or less spotted over the 

 entire surface with blotches of reddish brown. Size about the same as those of the 

 Cardinal. 



FIG. 202. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



Outside of the mountains this bird is only recorded from Chapel Hill and Raleigh, 

 where it has been observed in the spring between April 28 and May 8, and at 

 Guilford College, where Pearson saw five on May 9, 1897. 



Like the Cardinal, it is a pleasing singer; and it is one of the few birds that care 

 for potato-bugs as an article of diet. 



Genus Guiraca (Swains.) 

 250. Guiraca caerulea cserulea (Linn.}. BLUE GROSBEAK. 



Description. Male, blue with chestnut wing-bars; female, yellowish brown with whitish 

 wing-bars. Immature males are only partly blue, the tint in that case being restricted to the 

 head and forepart of the body. Females are occasionally somewhat blue. Extreme measure- 

 ments of 75 Raleigh specimens: L., 6.25-7.25; W., 3.00-3.65; T., 2.38-2.90. 



Range. Southeastern United States in summer; wintering south of our border. 



Range in North Carolina. A summer resident in the central and eastern districts. 



Fict. 203. BLUE GROSBEAK. 



The Blue Grosbeak is a summer visitor in that portion of the State lying east 

 of the mountain ranges, arriving from the south late in April or early in May, and 

 leaving again late in September. 



