SUPPLEMENT TO THE OOLOGIST. 83 



The Eose-breasted Grosbeak. 

 [Continued from supplement for Nov. and Dec.] 



mixed with a few leaves and the bark of vines, and is lined with fibrous roots and 

 horse-hair. The eggs are seldom more than four, and 1 believe only one brood is rais- 

 ed in the season. Both sexes incubate. I have found the nest and eggs, on the 20th 

 of May, on the borders of Cayuga Lake in the State of New York. 



The flight of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is strong, even, and as graceful as it is 

 sustained. When travelling southward, at the approach of autumn, or about the 1st of 

 September, it passes high over the forest trees, in the manner of the King-bird and the 

 Robin, alighting toward sunset on a tall tree, from which it in a few minutes dives in- 

 to some close thicket, where it i-eraains during the night. The birds travel singly at 

 this season, as well as during spring. 



1 am indebted to my friend John Bachman, for the following information respect- 

 ing this interesting Grosbeak : ' ' One spring, I shot at a beautiful male bird of this 

 species, in the State of New York. It was wounded in one foot only, and although I 

 c!Ould not perceive any other injury afterwards, it fell from the tree to the ground, and 

 before it recovered itself I secured it. Not hawing a cage at hand, I let it fly in the 

 room which I had made my study. Before an hour had elapsed, it appeared as if dis- 

 posed to eat ; it refused corn and wheat, but fed heartil}^ on bread dipped in milk. 'J^'he 

 next day it was nearly quite gentle, and began to examine the foot injured by the shot, 

 which was much swollen and quite black. It began to bite oif its foot at the wounded 

 part, and soon succeeded in cutting it quite across. It healed in a few days, and the 

 bird used the mutilated leg almost as well as the other, perching and resting upon it. 

 It required indeed some care to observe that the patient had been injured. I procured 

 a cage for it, to which it immediately became reconciled. It ate all kinds of food, but 

 preferred Indian corn meal and hempseed. It appeared fonder of insects than birds of 

 that genus are supposed to be, and ate grasshoppers and crickets with peculiar relish. 

 It would at times sit for ]iours watching the flies, as these passed about it, and snatched 

 at and often secured such wasps as now and then approached the pieces of fruit thrown 

 into the cage. Very often, of fine moonshiny nights, it would tune its pipe, and sing 

 sweetly, but not loudly, remaining quietly perched and in the same position. Whilst 

 singing during the day, it was in the habit of opening its wings, and gently raising 

 them, somewhat in the manner of the Mocking-bird. I found it very difficult to pre- 

 serve this bird during winter, and was obliged for that purpose to place it in a room 

 heated by a stove to summer temperature. It was a lively and very gentle companion 

 of my study for nearly three years ; it died of cold the third winter. It frequently es- 

 caped from the cage, but never exhibited the least desire to leave me, for it invariably 

 returned to some portion of the house at the approach of night. Its song continued a- 

 bout six weeks during summer, and about two in the autumn ; at all other periods it 

 simply uttered a faint chuck, and seemed to possess many of the ordinary habits of the 

 Blue Grosbeak." 



The food of this beautiful bird consists of seeds of the cereal plants, of Grasses, 

 and those of different kinds of berries, along with insects. The young are three years 

 in obtaining their full dress, and undergo their changes very slowly. 



Although common about the mouths of the Mississippi in spring, when on its way 

 northward, this species is never seen in South Carolina. When proceeding to the Tex- 

 as in April, 1837, I found it so abundant wherever we landed that hundreds might have 

 been procured. Both sexes were in perfect plumage. Mr. Townsend observed it on 

 the Missouri ; and Dr. T. M. Brewer informs me that he shot a fine male at Fresh 

 Pond, near Boston, in the summer of 1832, and knew of two or three females killed 

 afterwards. 



