EVENING GROSBEAK. 
367 
expression of the far-famed Philomel, nor yet those contrasted 
tones, which, in the solemn stillness of the growing night, fall 
at times into a soothing whisper, or slowly rise and quicken 
into a loud and cheering warble. A strain of almost senti- 
mental tenderness and sadness pervades by turns the song of 
the Nightingale ; it flows like a torrent, or dies away like an 
echo ; his varied ecstasies poured to the pale moonbeams, 
now meet with no response but the sighing zephyr or the ever- 
murmuring brook. The notes of our Cardinal are as full of 
hilarity as of tender expression ; his whistling call is uttered in 
the broad glare of day, and is heard predominant over most of 
the feathered choir by which he is surrounded. His respond- 
ing mate is the perpetual companion of all his joys and cares ; 
simple and content in his attachment, he is a stranger to 
capricious romance of feeling, and the shades of melancholy, 
however feeble and transient, find no harbor in his preoc- 
cupied affections. 
The Cardinal occurs regularly but sparingly in southern New 
England, and it has been occasionally seen in Massachusetts and 
northward. Two examples visited Halifax, N. S , in 1871. It is 
quite common in Ohio, and has been taken, aci'oss the lake, in 
Ontario. 
EVENING GROSBEAK. 
COCCOTHRAUSTES VESPERTINA. 
Char. Dusky olivaceous, shading to yellowish on the rump; fore- 
head, line over the eyes, and under tail-coverts, yellow ; crown, wings, 
and tail black ; secondaries mostly white ; bill greenish yellow, conspicu- 
ously large. Female differs slightly from the male, but is readily identi- 
fied. Length about to S inches. 
Nest. In the deep forest, usually on a branch of a tall tree, sometimes 
in low bush; composed of twigs and roots, lined with roots or hair. 
Eggs. 4-?; pale dull green, marked with pale brown spots. 
This beautiful species inhabits the solitudes of the North- 
western interior, being met with from the extremity of the 
Michigan Territory to the Rocky Mountains. It is not un- 
common towards the upper extremity of Lake Superior and 
