(140 ) 



THE BLUE GROSBEAK. 



Fringilla ccerulej, Bonap. 



PLATE CXXII. Male, Female, and Young. 



While the Cardinal Grosbeak enlivens the neighbourhood of our 

 southern cities and villages, and frequents the lawn of the planter's habi- 

 tation, the present species, shy and bashful, retires to the borders of the 

 almost stagnant waters used as reservoirs for the purpose of irrigating the 

 rice plantations. There, where the alligator, basking sluggishly on the 

 miry pool, bellows forth its fearful cries, or in silence watches the timid 

 deer, as it approaches to immerse its body in order to free it from the at- 

 tacks of myriads of tormenting insects ; where the watchful Heron stands 

 erect, silent, and ready to strike its slippery prey, or leisurely and grace- 

 fully steps along the muddy margins ; where baneful miasmata fill the 

 sultry air, now imbued with a virus almost sufficient to prostrate all other 

 beino-s save those whose nature enables them to remain in those damps ; — 

 there you meet with the Ccerulean Grosbeak, timidly skipping from bush 

 to bush, or over and amid the luxuriant rice, watchful even of the move- 

 ments of the slave employed in cultivating the fertile soil. If the place 

 is silent and the weather calm, this cautious bird gradually ascends some 

 high tree, from the top of which it pours forth its melting melodies, the 

 female sitting the while on her eggs in her grassy nest, in some low shel- 

 tered bush hard by. Her mate now and then relieves her from her task, 

 provides her with food while she sits, and again lulls her to repose by his 

 sono-. One brood and again another are hatched, reared, and led forth to 

 find for themselves the food so abundantly spread around them. Humbly 

 and inconspicuously clad as the young birds are, most of them escape the 

 talon of the watchful Hawk, or the fire of the mischief-loving gunner. 

 The parents soon join them, and no sooner is their favourite rice gathered, 

 than the whole fly off, and gradually wend their way to warmer chmes. 



Althouo-h this sweet songster spends the spring and summer in our 

 Southern States, it must be considered as a rather scarce bird there. It 

 seldom enters deep woods, but prefers such low grounds as I have de- 

 scribed above, or the large and level abandoned fields covered with rank 

 grasses and patches of low bushes. It arrives in the lower parts of Lou- 



