270 GROSBEAK. 



88.— BLUE GROSBEAK. 



Loxia cserulea, Tnd. Orn. i. 374. Lin. i. 316. Gm.Lin.i. 863. Spalowsk. Vog. ii. 



t. 36. Daud. ii. 389. ^mer. Qnt. iii. pi. 24. f. 6. 

 Pyrrhula Carolinensis caerulea, Bris. iii. 323. Id. 8vo. i. 399. Klein, 95. 

 Le bec-rond Bouvreuil bleu d'Amerique, Btif. iv. 392. 

 Gros-bec bleu, Voy. d'Azara, iii. No. 119. 

 Blue Finch of Guiana, Bancr. Guian. 179. 

 Blue Grosbeak, Gen. Syn. iii. 116. Gates. Car. i. 39. ^4rcf. Zool. ii. 217. Bartr. 



Tr. 288. iVa*. Mm. pi. 545. 



SIZE of a Bullfinch ; length six inches and a half, breadth eleven. 

 Bill stout, brown, under mandible paler, surrounded at the base 

 with black feathers as far as the eye; the rest of the plumage deep 

 blue, but the quills and tail are brown, with a mixture of green ; 

 and across the wing coverts a band of ferruginous red ; the lower 

 order of coverts tipped with pale ferruginous, forming a narrow band ; 

 tail a little rounded, tips of all but the two middle feathers fringed 

 with white, the very tip of the two outer ones white ; the under 

 coverts reach half on the tail, and are white at the ends. 



The female is brown, with a slight tinge of blue, and ferruginous 

 brown, on the wing coverts, but both the bars very pale ; tail feathers 

 fringed with pale at the tips, as in the male. 



Young cocks resemble the hens, but have a shade of blue on the 

 head : in the second summer the feathers of the back, and breast, are 

 margined with pale rufous yellow ; also the margins of the quills. 



This species frequents the oak woods about Savannah, in Georgia, 

 the whole summer ; and has a loud, agreeable note : it builds in 

 trees and bushes ; the nest formed of dried grass and feathers, and 

 the eggs of a pale dusky blue green, without any markings.* 



Dr. Bancroft's bird is described as sky-blue, with the outer edges 

 of the quills and tail crimson ; and is probably a male in one of its 



* Mr. Abbot. 



