138 
FRINGILLA LUDOVICIANA. 
83 . FRINGILLA LUDOVICIANA , BONAPARTE. 
FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 
BONARFRTE, PLATE XV. FIG. U. 
Though several figures have been published of ^ 
very showy male rose-breasted grosbeak, the huiyj 
plumage oi' the female and young has never been 
cribed. It would, however, have better served 
purposes of science, if the preference had been give 11 ‘ 
the latter, though less calculated to attract the f L' 
inasmuch as striking colours are far less liable to (l j 
misunderstood or confounded in the description ^ 
species, than dull and blended tints. It will be ( . 
by the synonymy, that nominal species have in 
been introduced into the systems. But if it be * e J 
extraordinary that the female and young should b% 
been formed into species, it is certainly unacconnt® A, 
that the male itself should have been twice describe v 
the same works, once as a finch, and once as a g ros! 'fit 
This oversight originated with Pennant, and l* 1 V, 
compilers have faithfully copied it, though so easj’ 
rectify. 
The female rose-breasted grosbeak is eight in c J'.j| 
long, and twelve and a half inches in extent.” The 
has not the form either of the typical grosbeaks ^ 
of the bullfinches, but is intermediate between tb efl ' 
though more compressed than either; it is three qiiaf te j 
of an inch long, and much higher than broad; in^'A j 
of being pure white, as that of the male, it is d«sW 
horn colour above, and whitish beneath and o»/ f 
margins ; the irides are hazel brown ; the crown lS w 
a blackish-brown, each feather being skirted with 
olive-brown, and faintly spotted with white on 
centre ; from the nostrils a broad band passes over j, 
eye, margining the crown to the neck; a brown str® . 
passes through the eye, and the inferior orbit is wb 1 ^ 
more of the brown arises from the angle of the m ® l !],e 
spreading on the auricular s ; on the upper part of 
