BLUE GROSBEAK. 55 
is of a light yellowish flaxen color, streaked with dark olive and whitish ; 
the hreast is streaked with olive, pale flaxen, and white ; the lining of 
the wings is pale yellow ; the hill more dusky than in the male, and the 
white on the wing less. 
Species III. LOXIA C2ERULEA, 
BLUE GROSBEAK. 
[Plate XXIV. Fig. 6.] 
Linn. Si/st. 304.— Latham, Syn. nr., p. 116.— Arct. Zool. p. 351, No. 217. — Catesbt, 
Car. i., 39.— Buffon, m., 454. PI. Enl. 154. 
This solitary and retired species inhabits the warmer parts of Ame- 
rica, from Guiana, and probably farther south,* to Virginia. Mr. 
Bartram also saw it during a summer's residence near Lancaster, Penn- 
sylvania. 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 ; hut seldom sing 
in confinement. The individual represented in the plate was a very 
elegant specimen, in excellent order, though just arrived from Charles- 
ton, South Carolina. During its stay with me, I fed it on Indian corn, 
which it seemed to prefer, 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 generally 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 extent ; 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 superior row wholly chestnut ; 
rest of the wing black, skirted with blue ; tail forked, black, slightly 
edged with bluish, and sometimes minutely tipped with white ; legs and 
feet lead color ; bill a dusky bluish horn color ; eye large, full and 
black. 
The female is of a dark drab color, tinged with blue, and considerably 
lightest below. I suspect the males are subject to a change of color 
during winter. The young, as usual with many other species, do not 
Latham, n., p. 116. 
