SPECIES 2. LOXM LUBOVICMNJi. 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 
[Plate XVII. — Fig. 2. Male.] 
Loxia Ludoviciana, Gmf.l. Syst. i,p. 861. — Eed-hreasted Gros- 
beak, Jlrct. Zool.p. 350, JVo.SlS. — Red-breasted Finch, Id. 372, 
JV*o. 245 . — Le Rose gorge. Buff, hi, 460. — Gros-bec de la 
Louisiane, PL Enl. 153, Jig. 2. — Lath. Syn. ii, 126. — Peale's 
Museum, JSTo. 5806, male — 5807, female — 5806 male of one 
year old. 
This elegant species is rarely found in the lower parts of 
Pennsylvania; in the state of New York, and those of New Eng- 
land, it is more frequently observed; particularly in Fall when 
the berries of the sour gum are ripe, on the kernels of which it 
eagerly feeds. Some of its trivial names would import, that it 
is also an inhabitant of Louisiana; but I have not heard of its 
being seen in any of the southern states. A gentleman of Mid- 
dleton, Connecticut, informed me, that he kept one of these 
birds for some considerable time in a cage, and observed that it 
frequently sung at night, and all night: that its notes were ex- 
tremely clear and mellow, and the sweetest of any bird with 
which he is acquainted. 
The bird from which the figure on the plate was taken, was 
shot, late in April, on the borders of a swamp, a few miles from 
Philadelphia. Another male of the same species was killed at 
the same time, considerably different in its markings; a proof 
that they do not acquire their full colours until at least the se- 
cond spring or summer. 
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is eight inches and a half long, 
and thirteen inches in extent; the whole upper parts are black 
except the second row of wing coverts, which are broadly tipt 
