BLUE GROSBEAK. 367 



BLUE GROSBEAK. {Loxia coerulea.) 



PLATE XXIV.— Fig. 6. 



Linn. Syst. 304.— Lath. iii. 116.— Arct. Zool. p. 351, No. 217.— Catesb. i. 39. Buff. 

 iii. 454, PI. enl. 154.— Peak's Museum, No. 5826. 



GUIBAGA CCEBULEA.—Swawson.* 



Fringilla coerulea, Bonap. Synop. p. 114. 



This solitary and retired species inhabits the warmer parts 

 of America, from Guiana, and probably farther south,t to 

 Virginia. Mr Bartram also saw it during a summer's resi- 

 dence near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the United States, 

 however, it is a scarce species ; and having but few notes, is 

 more rarely observed. Their most common note is a loud 

 chuck ; they have also at times a few low, sweet-toned notes. 

 They are sometimes kept in cages, in Carolina ; but seldom 

 sing in confinement. The individual represented in the plate 

 was a very elegant specimen, in excellent order, though just 

 arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. During its stay 

 with me, I fed it on Indian corn, which it seemed to prefer, 

 easily breaking with its powerful bill the hardest grains. 

 They also feed on hemp seed, millet, and the kernels of 

 several kinds of berries. They are timid birds, watchful, 

 silent, and active, and generally neat in their plumage. 

 Having never yet met with their nest, I am unable at pre- 

 sent to describe it. 



The blue grosbeak is six inches long, and ten inches in 

 extent ; lores and frontlet, black ; whole upper parts, a rich 

 purplish blue, more dull on the back, where it is streaked 

 with dusky ; greater wing-coverts, black, edged at the tip 

 with bay ; next superior row, wholly chestnut ; rest of the 

 wing, black, skirted with blue; tail, forked, black, slightly 



* Loxia coerulea is not figured in tlie PI. ml. That bird is a Pitylus. 

 t Latham, ii. p. 116. 



