FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 271 



Mag. N. 8. i., p. 438. — Le Rose-gorge, Bvtt. Ois. iii., p. 460.— Gros-6ec de ?a 

 Louisiane, Bupf. PI. Enl. 153, fig. 2, Male. — Moineau ci poitrine et venire pour- 

 pr4s, SoNN. Bvff. XLViir., p. 240. — Red-hreasted Grosbeak, Penn. Arct. Zool. Sp. 

 212. Lath. Syn. in., p. 126, Sp. 24. — Red-breasted Finch, Penn. Arct. Zool. Sp. 

 275. Lath. Syn. in., p. 272, Sp. 30, adult Male. — Dusky Grosbeak, Penn. Arct. 

 Zool. Sp. 216. Lath. Syn. in., p. 127, Sp. 26, Female. — Spotted Grosbeak, Penn. 

 Arct. Zool.. Sp. 213. Lath. Syn. in., p. 126, Sp. 25, young. 



Though several figures have been published of the very showy male 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the humble plumage of the female and young 

 has never been represented. It would, however, have better served the 

 purposes of science if the preference had been given to the latter, though 

 less calculated to attract the eye, inasmuch as striking colors are far 

 less liable to be misunderstood or confounded in the description of 

 species, than dull and blended tints. It will be seen by the synonymy, 

 that nominal species have in fact been introduced into the systems. 

 But if it be less extraordinary that the female and young should have 

 been formed into species, it is certainly unaccountable that the male 

 itself should have been twice described in the same works, once as a 

 Finch, and once as a Grosbeak. This oversight originated with Pen- 

 nant, and later compilers have faithfully copied it, though so easy to 

 rectify. 



The female Rose-breasted Grosbeak is eight inches long, and twelve 

 and a half inches in extent. The bill has not the form either of the 

 typical Grosbeaks, or of the Bullfinches, but is intermediate between 

 them, though more compressed than either : it is three-quarters of an 

 inch long, and much higher than broad ; instead of being pure white, as 

 that of the male, it is dusky horn-color above, and whitish beneath and 

 on the margins ; the irides are hazel brown ; the crown is of a blackish 

 brown, each feather being skirted with lighter olive brown, and faintly 

 spotted with white on the centre ; from the nostrils a broad band passes 

 over the eye, margining the crown to the neck ; a brown streak passes 

 through the eye, and the inferior orbit is white : more of the brown 

 arises from the angle of the mouth, spreading on the auriculars ; on the 

 upper part of the neck above, the feathers are whitish edged with pale 

 flaxen, and with a broad, oblong, medial, blackish brown spot at tip ; on 

 the remaining part of the neck and interscapulars this blackish spot is 

 wider, so that the feathers are properly of that color, broadly edged 

 with pale flaxen ; the back and rump, and the upper tail-coverts are of 

 a lighter brown, with but a few merely indicated and lighter spots ; the 

 whole inferior surface of the bird is white, but not very pure ; the sides 

 of the throat are dotted with dark brown, the dots occupying the tips 

 of the feathers ; the breast and flanks are somewhat tinged with flaxen 

 (more dingy on the latter), and each feather being blackish along the 

 middle at tip, those parts appear streaked with that color ; the middle 



