72 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



Grosbeak, Rose-breasted. — Length, eight and one- 

 half inches; extent, thirteen inches. Above, jet black, ex- 

 cept the rump, which is white; wings, black barred and 

 tipped with white; tail, black; the three outer feathers 

 with the inner webs largely white; side of head and fore 

 neck, black; breast, brilliant rosy pink; rest of under sur- 

 face, white; iinderneath the wing a patch of rose pink 

 feathers. Younger birds have more or less dull brown 

 feathers in the wing and tail. In autumn the plumage is 

 quite different. The bird then appears brown above, 

 streaked with black; wings barred and tipped with white, 

 and dull white line over the eye; below, buff, speckled 

 with black, with throat and breast more or less suffused 

 with pink, and pink feathers under the wing. The fe- 

 male at all seasons resembles the autumn plumage just 

 described, but has less buff beneath and no pink; beneath 

 the wing the feathers are yellow. The bill is very thick 

 and nearly pure white in the spring male, more dusky in 

 the female; legs and feet, blue gray. 



The nest is found in bushes or trees, from five to 

 twenty feet from the ground. It is a perfect circle, made 

 of fine twigs, weeds and roots, and lined with the same 

 but of a finer quality. The eggs are from four to five in 

 number, nine-tenths by seven-tenths of an inch in size, 

 and of a pale blue with olive-brown markings. 



It breeds in the northern part of the United States and 

 in Canada, but is found during the summer only in the 

 northern portion of New Jersey; migrants arrive in the 

 state during the first part of May and those that go 

 further north return in September. 



The song is frequently heard towards evening and is a 

 delightful warble, somewhat resembling the robin's, but 

 more exquisitely pure. 



Its fondness for potato-bugs has earned for it in some 

 localities the name of Potato-bug Bird, but it also de- 

 stroys beetles, bugs and larvae. Its vegetable food con- 



