614 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF ZAMELODIA. 



a. Under wing-coverts rose red (male) or saffron yellow (female); adult male with 

 plumage black, white, and rose red. (Eastern North America; south to Ecua- 

 dor. ) 



Zamelodia ladoviciaua (p. 614) 



aa. Under wing-coverts clear lemon yellow in both sexes; adult male with plumage 



blak;k, white, orange-tawny, and lemon yellow. (Western United States; 



Mexico. ) Zamelodia melanocephala (p. 617) 



ZAMELODIA LUDOVICIANA (Linnaeus). 

 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



Adult male in suminer. — Head, neck, back, and scapulars uniform 

 black; wings black, relieved by a large patch of white on basal portion 

 of primaries, white spots at tips of innermost greater coverts and ter- 

 tials, and a broad white band composed of the middle coverts; upper 

 tail-coverts black, with large terminal spots of white; tail black, with 

 inner webs of three outermost rectrices extensively white terminally; 

 chest, median portion of breast, under wing-coverts, and axillars rose 

 red or light carmine (varying to geranium or peach-blossom pink, 

 more rarely to light poppj' red)'; rest of under parts of body white, 

 the rump also white; maxilla light bi'ownish, becoming dusky ter- 

 minally; mandible paler (more lilaceous in life); iris brown; legs and 

 feet grayish horn color. 



Adult male in wintei\ — Wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts as in 

 summer; head, neck, back, and scapulars brown, more or less streaked 

 with black, the blackish streaks broadest on scapulars, which are 

 merely margined with brown; color of head relieved by a median 

 crown- stripe, a superciliary stripe, and malar stripe of pale buffyor 

 butfy whitish; under parts brownish white or pale brownish (paler or 

 more purely white posteriorly), the chest, sides, and flanks more 

 or less streaked with dusky, the first more or less extensively tinged 

 or suffused with rose red or rose pink. 



Young male in first winter. — Similar to the adult male in winter, 

 but wings, upper tail-coverts, and tail grayish brown, instead of black, 

 the last without anj- white, the first with the white markings much 

 reduced and more or less tinged with brown; back and scapulars more 

 uniformly brown; rump brown, or bufl'y olive; chest, sides, and flanks 

 more deeply fulvous and more heavily streaked, the first with little, if 

 any, red or pink; under wing-coverts and axillars rose pink, as in 

 adults. 



AdAdt female {summer and winter). — Much like the young male, but 

 under wing-coverts and axillars yellow (maize yellow, chrome yellow, 

 or light orange-yellow) instead of rose pink. 



' The red or pink sometimes invades the throat, occasionally occupying the entire 

 gular area; frequently it reaches backward, along the median line, to the abdomen; 

 more rarely the rump is pinkish. 



