136 
fringilla vespertina. 
to be distinguished generically from Fringilla, as Tur# 
from Sylvia ; and at all events, its claim is full as 
and perhaps better, than its near relation Pt/rrhU'" 1 
In the present work, however, we have preferred 
taining things as we found them, until we can apl'i 
ourselves to tho work of a general reform, as annouD 6 *, 
in the first article of this volume. Though we reg aI< 
the grosbeaks as a subgenus, others, going to the opP^ 
site extreme, have erected them into a separate fan' 1 ';.’ 
composed of several genera. The evening grosbeak fj 
however, so precisely similar in form to the hawfi " l! \ 
type of the group, as to defy the attempts of the ni° f ‘ 
determined innovators to separate them. Its bill i- ? 
broad, as high, quite as strong and turgid, with 
mandibles equal, the upper depressed and round 6 ' 
above, and the commissure straight. It conforms e' -1 t 
in a slight degree, in the rhomboidal shape of the e". 1 ’ 
of the secondaries, — a character so conspicuous in , 
analogue; to which, in the distribution and transitin' 1 
of its tints, though very different, it also bears a res 1 ' 1 ' 1 , 
blance. It. is, however, of the four North Amerhj*. 
species of its group, the only one so strictly allied, > l ’f 
even the cardinal grosbeak, the most nearly related ^ 
these species, on account of its short rounded wings 
other minor traits, might he separated, though fo (tb 
nately it has not been as yet, to our knowledge; tb 
others have already. 
The evening grosbeak is eight and a half in ^ 
long; its bill is of a greenish yellow, brighter on 1 j 
margins, seven-eights of an inch long, five-eighths bro a '.’ 
the same in height; the capistrum and lora are bk d j 
the front is widely bright yellow, prolonged in a hr®" 
stripe over the eye to the ears; the hind crown is 
intermixed with yellow, visible only on separating * . 
feathers, hut leading to the suspicion that at soB |. 
period the yellow extends perhaps all over the cro^J 
the sides and inferior parts of the head, the whole 
above and beneath, together with the interscapu 1 * . 
and breast, are of a dark olive brown, becoming 1* ? , e d 
by degrees ; the scapulars are yellow, slightly 
