PINE GROSBEAK. 8 I 



Mr Pennant says, they sing on their first arrival in the country 

 round Hudson's Bay, but soon become silent ; make their nest 

 on trees, at a small height from the ground, with sticks, and 

 line it with feathers. The female lays four white eggs, which 

 are hatched in June. Forster observes, that they visit Hud- 

 son's Bay only in May, on their way to the north ; and are not 

 observed to return in the autumn ; and that their food consists 

 of birchwillow buds, and others of the same nature.* 



The pine grosbeak measures nine inches in length, and 

 fourteen inches in extent ; the head, neck, breast, and rump 

 are of a rich crimson, palest on the breast ; the feathers on the 

 middle of the back are centred with arrow-shaped spots of 

 black, and skirted with crimson, which gives the plumage a 

 considerable flush of red there ; those on the shoulders are of a 

 deep slate colour, partially skirted with red, and light ash. 

 The greater wing-coverts and next superior row are broadly 

 tipt with white, and slightly tinged with reddish ; wings and 

 tail, black, edged with light brown; tail, considerably forked; 

 lower part of the belly, ash colour ; vent-feathers, skirted with 

 white, and streaked with black ; legs, glossy black ; bill, a 

 brownish horn colour, very thick, short, and hooked at the 

 point;. the upper mandible overhanging the lower consider- 

 ably, approaching in its form to that of the parrot ; base of 

 the bill, covered with recumbent hairs of a dark brown colour. 

 The whole plumage, near the roots, as in most other birds, is 

 of a deep bluish ash colour. The female was half an inch 

 shorter, and answered nearly to the above description ; only, 

 those parts that in the male were crimson, were in her of a 

 dirty yellowish colour. The female, according to Forster, 

 referred to above, has those parts which in the male are red, 

 more of an orange tint; and he censures Edwards for having 

 represented the female of too bright a red. It is possible that 

 my specimen of the female might have been a bird of the first 

 season, not come to its full colours. Those figured by Mr 

 Edwards f were both brought from Hudson's Bay, and appear 



* Philosophical Transactions, lxii. 402. f Edw. iii. 124. 



VOL. I. F 



