EVENING GROSBEAK. 329 
and have not appeared since ; and by Major Delafield, in the 
month of August of the sume year, near the Savannah river, 
north-west from Lake Superior. ‘They appear to retire during 
the day to the deep swamps of that lonely region, which are 
covered with a thick growth of various trees of the coniferous 
order, and only leave them in small parties at the approach 
of night. Their note is strange and peculiar ; and it is only 
at twilight that they are heard crying in a singular strain. 
This mournful sound, uttered at such an unusual hour, strikes 
the traveller’s ear, but the bird itself is seldom seen ; though, 
probably from its unacquaintance with man, it is so remarkably 
tame and fearless as almost to suffer itself to be caught with 
the hand. 
The specimen of the evening grosbeak presented to the 
Lyceum of New York by Mr Schoolcraft, from which Mr 
Cooper established the species, was thought, until lately, the 
only one in possession of civilised man; but we have since 
examined two others shot early in the spring on the Atha- 
basca Lake, near the Rocky Mountains, and preserved among 
the endless treasures of Mr Leadbeater of London. From 
the more perfect of these, our plate, already engraved from 
Mr Cooper’s specimen, has been faithfully coloured ; and the 
subjoined description is carefully drawn up from a perfect 
specimen now before us, which Mr Leadbeater, with the most 
obliging liberality, has confided to our charge. 
Although we consider the grosbeaks (Coccothraustes) as 
only a subgenus of our great genus Lringilla, they may with 
equal propriety constitute one by themselves, as the insensible 
degrees by which intermediate species pass from one form 
into another (which determined us in considering them as a 
subgenus, and not a genus) are equally observable between 
other groups, though admitted as genera. Coccothraustes is as 
much entitled to be distinguished generically from Fringilla, 
as Turdus from Sylvia ; and at all events, its claim is fully 
as good, and perhaps better, than its near relation, Pyrrhula. 
In the present work, however, we have preferred retaining 
