EVENING GROSBEAK. 367 
expression of the far-famed Philomel, nor yet those contrasted 
tones, which, in the solemn stillness of the growing night, fall 
at times into a soothing whisper, or slowly rise and quicken 
into a loud and cheering warble. A strain of almost senti- 
mental tenderness and sadness pervades by turns the song of 
the Nightingale ; it flows like a torrent, or dies away like an 
echo; his varied ecstasies poured to the pale moonbeams, 
now meet with no response but the sighing zephyr or the ever- 
murmuring brook. The notes of our Cardinal are as full of 
hilarity as of tender expression ; his whistling call is uttered in 
the broad glare of day, and is heard predominant over most of 
the feathered choir by which he is surrounded. His respond- 
ing mate is the perpetual companion of all his joys and cares; 
simple and content in his attachment, he is a stranger to 
capricious romance of feeling, and the shades of melancholy, 
however feeble and transient, find no harbor in his preoc- 
cupied affections. 
The Cardinal occurs regularly but sparingly in southern New 
England, and it has been occasionally seen in Massachusetts and 
northward. Two examples visited Halifax, N.S, in 1871. It is 
quite common in Ohio, and has been taken, across the lake, in 
Ontario. 
EVENING GROSBEAK. 
COCCOTHRAUSTES VESPERTINA. 
CuHarR. Dusky olivaceous, shading to yellowish on the rump; fore- 
head, line over the eyes, and under tail-coverts, yellow; crown, wings, 
and tail black; secondaries mostly white; bill greenish yellow, conspicu- 
ously large. Female differs slightly from the male, but is readily identi- 
fied. Length about 714 to 8 inches. 
Vest. In the deep forest, usually on a branch of a tall tree, sometimes 
in low bush; composed of twigs and roots, lined with roots or hair. 
L£ggs. 4-?; pale dull green, marked with pale brown spots. 
This beautiful species inhabits the solitudes of the North- 
western interior, being met with from the extremity of the 
Michigan Territory to the Rocky Mountains. It is not un- 
common towards the upper extremity of Lake Superior and 
