SPECIES 3. LOXM CJERULEA. 
BLUE GROSBEAK. 
[Plate XXIV.— Fig. 6.] 
Linn. Syst. 304, — Latham, Syn. iii , p. 116. — Jlrct. Zool . p. 351, 
jyo. 217. — Catesby, Car. i, 39. — Buffon, hi, 454. FI, Enl. 
154. — Peai.e’s Museum , JSTo . 5826. 
This solitary and retired species inhabits the warmer parts of 
America, from Guiana, and probably farther south, * to Virginia. 
Mr. Bartram also saw it during a summer’s residence near Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania. In the United States, however, it is a scarce 
.species; and having but few notes, is more rarely observed. Their 
most common note is a loud chuck; they have also at times a few 
low sweet toned notes. They are sometimes kept in cages in Car- 
olina; but seldom sing in confinement. The individual represen- 
ted in the plate was a very elegant specimen, in excellent order, 
though just arrived from Charleston, South Carolina. During 
its stay with me, I fed it on Indian corn, which it seemed to 
prefer, easily breaking with its powerful bill the hardest grains. 
They also feed on hemp seed, millet, and the kernels of several 
kinds of berries. They are timid birds, watchful, silent and ac- 
tive, and generally neat in their plumage. Having never yet 
met with their nest, I am unable at present to describe it. 
The blue Grosbeak is six inches long, and ten inches in extent; 
lores and frontlet black; whole upper parts a rich purplish blue, 
more dull on the back, where it is streaked with dusky; greater 
wing coverts black, edged at the tip with bay; next superior row 
wholly chestnut; rest of the wing black, skirted with blue; tail 
forked, black, slightly edged with bluish, and sometimes mi- 
Latham, ii, p. 116. 
