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 hke 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 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, and westward 

 to Iowa. 



EVENING GROSBEAK. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES VESPERTINUS. 



Char. 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 •]%, to 8 inches. 



Nest. 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. 



Eggs. 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 



