SCARLET GROSBEAK. 
Erythrospiza erythrina, Bonaparte. 
Le Bouvreuil Pallas. 
Havine adopted the genus Hvythrospiza as established by the Prince of Musignano, we feel convinced that 
the present bird will form one of this well-marked group, the members of which appear to be so widely 
distributed. ‘The Scarlet Grosbeak must not be confounded with the Fringilla purpurea of Wilson, a bird to 
which it bears a resemblance both in habits and in style of colouring. A close examination of the two species 
will, however, at once satisfy the ornithologist as it respects their non-identity ; and we would further remark, 
that the present bird appears to be strictly confined to the Old World, while the Fringzlla purpurea is in like 
manner restricted to the American continent. 
The Scarlet Grosbeak is one of those European birds which are obtained with great difficulty, and of which 
very few specimens exist in our museums ; indeed, except our own, which came from Russia, we know of 
none in the public or private collections of Great Britain ; yet it is a species far from being uncommon 
in high northern latitudes, and in some parts of Russia, where, according to M. Temminck, it habitually 
frequents gardens, and appears, from the little information we have been able to obtain respecting it, to 
differ little in manners from our well-known Bullfinch. 
The male and female, as will be seen in the Plate, offer a decided difference in their colouring, the male 
being ornamented by a beautiful deep stain of scarlet over the whole of the plumage which is totally wanting 
in the female as well as in the young of both sexes; it is also probable that the male loses this distinguishing 
mark in winter and regains it in spring. 
The male has the head, neck, and top of the back of a lively crimson, fading off below into a beautiful rose 
colour ; the small feathers round the base of the beak and nostrils are also of a dull rose ; the wings and tail 
brown, the feathers being edged with deep rose colour ; beak and tarsi brown. 
The female has all the upper parts of a brownish grey, with longitudinal dashes of a deeper colour, the 
throat and cheeks being blotched with brown ; the under surface white, or nearly so. 
The Plate represents an adult male and female of the natural size. 
