78 
The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 
During the winter months it has lived in the West Indies, Mexico, 
Central America, and northern South America ; but with spring comes a 
longing for home, and it journeys by night through the trackless sky 
to its birthplace. This may be anywhere in the eastern United States 
and the more southern Canadian Provinces, from the Atlantic coast to 
the border of the plains. 
This Grosbeak seems to be rather more common in the Mississippi 
Valley than east of the Alleghenies. Its migration is 
Migration performed at night ; and it is among the later arrivals 
from the South in spring, most of the flocks going 
north of central Ohio to spend the summer, although a few pairs may 
breed in the mountains south of that latitude. 
The males are in their richest dress by the second week of May, and 
in most constant and brilliant song. As Dr. Chapman says : “There is 
no mistaking his black, white, and rose costume ; but the identity of his 
more modestly attired mate may long remain an open question. So little 
does she resemble him -that she may pass for an overgrown Sparrow with 
a rather conspicuous whitish stripe over the eye.” 
“I have nowhere found this beautiful bird more abundant,” writes 
Dr. Elliott Coues, “than along the Red River of the North, and there 
may be no locality where its nidification and breeding habits can be 
studied to greater advantage. On entering the belt of noble timber 
that borders the river, in June, we are almost sure to be saluted with the 
rich, rolling song of the rose-breasted male, and as we penetrate into the 
deeper recesses, pressing through the stubborn luxuriance of vegetation 
into the little shady glades that the bird loves so well, we may catch a 
glimpse of the shy and retiring female, darting into concealment, dis- 
turbed by our approach. She is almost sure to be followed the next 
moment by her ardent spouse, solicitous for her safety, bent on reassur- 
ing her by his presence and caresses. Sometimes during this month, as 
we enter a grove of saplings, and glance carefully overhead, we may see 
the nest, placed but a few feet from the ground, in the fork of a limb.” 
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak most frequently selects as its home 
second-growths of oaks on the borders of large timber, but does not con- 
fine itself exclusively to such localities. It builds a 
Nest and rather bulky nest of weed-stalks, twigs, rootlets, etc., 
in bushes or trees from five to twenty feet from the 
ground. The eggs are usually four, pale green in color, and profusely 
speckled with brown. 
The song of this bird is the theme of every nature-writer, and all 
unite in pronouncing it of the highest type. In some respects it resembles 
that of the Robin, but it is thought to have a more refined and musical 
quality. The description of the song of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak by 
Audubon is so delightful an exhibition of the character of the man, show- 
ing so perfectly his childlike faith in a Creator, and his absolute absorp- 
tion in the beauties of nature, that the passage is given in full : 
