80 



PINE GROSBEAK. 

 LOXIA ENUCLEATOR. 

 [Plate v.— Fig. 2.] 



Loxia Enucleator, Linn. Syst. I,//. 299, 3. — Le Dur-bec, ou Gros-bec de Canada^ Buffon 

 III, p. 457. PL enl. 135, 1.— Edw. 123, 124.— Lath. Syn. Ill, p. Ill, 5.— Peale's 

 Museum, Xo. 5652. . 



THIS is perhaps one of the gayest plumaged land birds that fre- 

 quent the inhospitable regions of the north, whence they are driven, 

 as if with reluctance, by the rigors of winter, to visit Canada and 

 some of the northern and middle states ; returning to Hudson^s Bay 

 so early as April. The specimen from which our drawing was 

 taken was shot on a cedar tree, a few miles to the north of Phila- 

 delphia, in the month of December; and a faithful resemblance of 

 the original, as it then appeared, is exhibited in the plate. A few 

 days afterwards another bird of the same species was killed not 

 far from Gray^s ferry, four miles south from Philadelphia, which 

 proved to be a female. In this part of the state of Pennsylvania 

 they are rare birds, and seldom seen. As they do not, to my know- 

 ledge, breed in any part of this state, I am unable from personal 

 observation to speak of their manners or musical talents. Mr. 

 Pennant says they sing on their first arrival in the country round 

 Hudson's Bay, but soon become silent; make their nest on trees, 

 at a small height from the ground, with sticks, and line it with fea- 

 thers. The female lays four white eggs, which are hatched in 

 June. Forster observes, that they visit Hudson's Bay only in May, 

 on their way to the north; and are not observed to return in the 

 autumn; and that their food consists of birch-willow buds, and 

 others of the same nature.* 



* Phil. Trans. LXII, p. 402, 



