BLUE GROSBEAK. 
371 
— almost within the shadow of Memorial Hall. The nest was 
laid upon a branch that hung over the sidewalk of Oxford Street, 
not more than ten or twelve feet from the ground, the tree being 
in the garden adjoining the residexice of Mr. Francis Foster. 
BLUE GROSBEAK. 
Guiraca c^rulea. 
Char. Male : general plumage rich blue, darker on the back; feath- 
ers around base of bill, wings, and tail black ; two bright rufous bands 
on the wings. Female: smaller; above, yellowish brown; below, dark 
buff. Length Ci'/i to 7 inches. 
JVest. On a low branch of a tree or bush, situated along the margin of 
a wood, or in an open pasture or orchard, or by a roadside, — sometimes 
in an alder swamp or blackberry thicket ; composed of leaves, weed- 
stems, and grass, lined with horse-hair, roots, or fine grass ; occasionally 
pieces of .snake skin or newspaper are worked into the exterior. 
£g^s. 3-4; light blue; 0.85 X 0.65. 
This shy and almost solitary species chiefly inhabits the 
warmer parts of America from Brazil to Virginia; stragglers 
occasionally also visit the lower parts of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, and Bullock observed them on the tableland of 
Mexico. According to Wilson, it is nearly a silent bird, seldom 
singing in the cage, its usual note of alarm being merely a 
loud chuck; though at times its musical capacity under more 
favorable circumstances is suggested by a few low and sweet- 
toned notes. It may be fed on Indian corn, hemp-seed, 
millet, and the kernels of several kinds of berries. 
According to Audubon, these birds arrive in Louisiana 
about the middle of March. They proceed through Alabama, 
Georgia, ani the Carolinas, in all which districts they breed ; 
and although rarely seen in the Westera States, Mr. Townsend 
and myself met with them in May on the borders of the 
Platte, near Scott’s Bluffs, where they were already mated and 
breeding. They are sometimes met with along the Atlantic 
coast as far as New Jersey, and Audubon found a nest in that 
State within a few miles of Philadelphia. Their food consists 
