78 



BLUE GROSBEAK. 



LOXIA CMIWLEA, 

 [Plate XXIV.— Fig. 6.] 



Linn. *Sz/^f. 304. — Latham, III, 116. — Arct. ZooL p. 351, No. 217. — Catesby, I, 39.—- 

 Buf FON, III, 454. PL Enl 154.— Peale's Museum, No. 5826. 



THIS solitary and retired species inhabits the warmer parts 

 of America, from Guiana, and probably farther south/' to Virgi- 

 nia. Mr. Bartram also saw it during a summer's residence 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 re- 

 presented in the plate was a very elegant specimen, in excellent 

 order, tho just arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. During 

 its stay with me, I fed it on Indian corn, which it seemed to pre- 

 fer, 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 ge- 

 nerally neat in their plumage. Having never yet met with their 

 nest, I am unable at present to describe it. 



The Blue Grosbeak is six inches long, and ten inches in ex- 

 tent; 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 supe- 

 rior row wholly chesnut; rest of the wing black, skirted with blue; 

 tail forked, black, slightly edged with bluish, and sometimes mi- 



* Latham, II, p. 116. 



