310 OE^^THOLOGT AXD OOLOGY. 



Female simikr " - .Jler: immatTire male -with the black of the head replaced 

 ' by dark chestnu:- ' .e white unged with brownish-rellow. 



The white of the crown separates two black Hnes on either sides, rather narrowei 

 than iiscli; the black line behind the ere is continued anterior to it into the black 

 at the base of the bill ; the lower eyelid is white : there are some obscure cloudings 

 of darker on the neck above ; the rump is immaculate : no white on the tail, except 

 very obscure tips : the white crosses the ends of the middle and greater coverts. 



Length, seven and ten one-hundredths inches ; wing, three and twenty-live one- 

 hundred ths. 



This beautiful bird is a rare spring and autumn visitor 

 in Xew England. It ai-rives about the first week in Mar, 

 sometimes as late as the 20th of that month, and returns 

 from the Xorth about the 10th of October, "\niile with 

 u^, it has all the habits of the succeeding species, with 

 which it usually associates. 



The following description of its breeding habits, nest, and 

 esrgs. is given bv Audubon : — 



'• One day. while near American Harbor, in Labrador, I observed 

 a pair of these birds resorting to a small • hummock' of firs, where 

 I concluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I 

 intimated my suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept 

 through the tangled branches, and examined the place without suc- 

 cess. . . . Our disappointment was the greater, that we saw the 

 male bird frequently flying about with food in his bUl, no doubt 

 intended for his mate. In a short while, the pair came near us, 

 and both were shot. In the female we found an egg, which was 

 pure-white, but vdxh the shell yet soft and thin. On the 6th of 

 July, wtule my son was creeping among some low bushes to get a 

 shot at some Red-throated Divers, he accidentally started a female 

 from her nest. It made much complaint. The nest was placed in 

 the moss, near the foot of a low fir, and was formed externally of 

 beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches, like the coarse hair 

 of some quadruped : internally of very fine dry grass, arranged 

 with srreat neatness to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with a 

 full lining of dehcate fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. 

 It was five inches in diameter externally, two in depth ; two and a 

 quarter in diameter within, although rather oblong, and one and 

 three-quarteis deep. In one nest, we found a single feather of the 

 Wniow Grouse. The eggs, five in number, average seven-eightlis 



