The Rose-breasted Grosbeak 



disguise, these birds (or at least the eastern form) are said to inflict some 

 damage upon the unharvested rice of Louisiana. If so, this is only 

 another case where governmental compensation, rather than personal re- 

 venge, ought to be sought. For the Blue Grosbeak, whether ccerulea, 

 lazula, or salicarius, is unquestionably a useful bird. 



No. 73 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak 



A. O. U. No. 595. Hedymeles ludovicianus (Linnaeus). 



Description. — Adult male in spring and summer: Head and neck all around 

 and upperparts sooty black; the rump white with some black tips of feathers, the upper 

 tail-coverts black with white tips; median coverts and tips of greater white; a large 

 white patch on primaries basally; inner secondaries and tertials tipped with white; 

 three outer pairs of rectrices extensively white on the inner webs distally; chest broadly 

 and breast centrally red (between spectrum red and jasper red); axillars and lining 

 of wings pink (geranium pink to light jasper red) ; remaining underparts white. Bill 

 light horn-color; feet and tarsi brownish gray. Adult male in winter: Quite different; 

 wings and tail as in summer, but black of head and neck and back replaced by brown, 

 more or less streaked with black; pattern of head broken by dull buffy superciliaries, 

 malar stripes, and median crown-stripe; underparts dull brownish white, paling pos- 

 teriorly; chest more or less suffused with pink, and chest, sides and flanks streaked 

 with dusky (Ridgway). Adult female in spring and summer: Above and on cheeks 

 brownish dusky, varied, especially on back and scapulars by brownish or ochraceous 

 edging; an irregularly defined superciliary stripe white; a still more obscure median 

 stripe white or buffy white; two narrow white bars on wings formed by white tips of 

 median coverts and tips of greater coverts continued by outcropping white of distal 

 portion of white primary-patch; beneath sordid brownish white, tinged with ochraceous 

 on sides of throat and chest, and more or less on sides and flanks; underparts also sharp- 

 streaked with dusky, save on chin and throat centrally, and on abdomen and crissum; 

 sharply and briefly on sides of throat and sides, more heavily and grossly on sides; 

 axillars and lining of wings light orange-yellow. Length (sexes about equal): 196.85- 

 2I 5-9 (7-75-8-5 ); win g 101.6 (4.00); tail 76 (3.00); bill 16.7 (.658); tarsus 22.5 (.886). 



Recognition Marks. — Towhee size; black and white of male with red breast 

 distinctive. Female very different, brownish dusky above, brownish white (heavily 

 streaked with dusky on chest and sides) below. Requires careful distinction from 

 female of H, melanocephalus, from which it differs chiefly in the broader streaking of 

 the underparts, and of course diagnostically in the orange (in place of yellow) of 

 axillars and wing-linings. 



Nesting. — Nest: A frail saucer of interlaced grasses, fibers, or rootlets, placed 

 at moderate heights in bushes, saplings, or orchard trees. Eggs: 3 to 5, usually 4; 

 much like those of succeeding species, and not certainly distinguishable from them, 

 though averaging darker. 



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