135 



ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 

 LOXIA ROSEA. 

 [Plate XVII.— Fig. 2.] 



Loxia Ludoviciana^ Turton's Syst, — lled-breasted Grosbeak, Atct. ZooL p. 350, jYo. 212, 

 — Red-breasted Finch, Id. 372, JVo. 245. — Le Bose gorge, Buff. Ill, 460. — Gros^bec de 

 la Louisiana, PL enl. 153, fig. 2. — Lath. II, 126. — Feale^s Museum, No. 5806, male— 

 female — 5806 A, male of one year old. 



THIS elegant species is rarely found in the lower parts of 

 Pennsylvania; in the state of New York, and those of New Eng- 

 land, it is more frequently observed; particularly in Fall when the 

 berries of the sour gum are ripe, on the kernels of which it eagerly 

 feeds. Some of its trivial names would import, that it is also an 

 inhabitant of Louisiana ; but I have not heard of its being seen in 

 any of the southern states. A gentleman of Middleton, Connec- 

 ticut, informed me, that he kept one of these birds for some con- 

 siderable time in a cage, and observed that it frequently sung at 

 night, and all night; that its notes were extremely clear and mel- 

 low, and the sweetest of any bird with which he is acquainted. 



The bird from which the figure on the plate was taken, was 

 shot, late in April, on the borders of a swamp, a few miles from 

 Philadelphia. Another male of the same species was killed at the 

 same time, considerably different in its markings ; a proof that they 

 do not acquire their full colors until at least the second spring or 

 summer. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is eight inches and a half long, 

 and thirteen inches in extent ; the whole upper parts are black ex- 

 cept the second row of wing coverts, which are broadly tipt with 

 white ; a spot of the same extends over the primaries, immediately 



