216 USEFUL BIRDs. 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 
Zamelodia ludoviciana. 
Length. — Seven and three-fourths to eight and one-half inches. 
Adult Male. — Above, mainly black; the black of head extending around under 
throat; wings and tail white-marked; rump white; upper tail coverts 
black and white; below, mainly white; middle breast and under wing 
coverts rose-red; the large bill appears white from below. 
Adult Female.— The black of the male largely replaced by brown, except on 
throat, which is white; line over eye and space in front of eye white or 
whitish; a streak on crown also whitish, mixed with brown; no white on 
rump or tail; no rose on breast, and that under wings replaced by yellow. 
Nest. — Built of twigs, fibers, and grasses; loosely made in bush or sapling, from 
five to twenty feet or more from ground. 
Eggs.— Varying in color from pale greenish-blue to dull green; thickly marked 
with coarse spots of various shades of brown and purplish. 
Season. — Early May to September. 
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak should be accorded the most 
cordial welcome wherever it appears; for not many birds 
have such beauty of plumage and song, and at the same 
time such useful habits. 
This is one of the few birds that has increased in numbers 
within the past forty years to 
such an extent that it is now 
found commonly in woods and 
thickets where many years ago 
it was considered rare. It is 
common, too, about the fields and 
gardens. Its sweet warbling may be 
ig 2 heard from the tall shade trees of the 
Fig. 78.—Rose-breastea Village street. The introduction and 
mee ean, et spread of the Colorado potato beetle, 
which reached Massachusetts about 
thirty years ago, may have had something to do with this 
increase in the number of Grosbeaks, for they are among the 
few birds that will eat this beetle. They seek the beetles 
so assiduously everywhere that they are often locally known 
as “ potato bug birds.” This Grosbéak has now become com- 
mon throughout most of Massachusetts, except on Cape Cod. 
The common note of this bird is a thin, sharp eek, quite dif- 
ferent from that of any other eastern bird. The song is a 
strong, rolling carol, somewhat like that of the Robin in 
