80 
PINE GROSBEAK. 
to Hudson’s Bay so early as April. The specimen from which 
our drawing was taken was shot on a cedar tree, a few miles to 
the north of Philadelphia, in the month of December ; and a 
faithful resemblance of the original, as it then appeared, is 
exhibited in the plate. A few days afterwards, another bird of 
the same species was killed not far from Gray’s Ferry, four miles 
south from Philadelphia, which proved to be a female. In this 
part of the state of Pennsylvania, they are rare birds, and seldom 
seen. As they do not, to my knowledge, breed in any part 
of this state, I am unable, from personal observation, to speak 
of their manners or musical talents. Mr Pennant says, they 
sing on their first arrival in the country round Hudson’s Bay, 
but soon become silent ; make their nest on trees, at a small 
height from the ground, with sticks, and line it with feathers. 
of Europe, or America, can seldom rank the Pine Grosbeak among their 
number ; the testimony of all travellers in America, who have attended to 
nature, correspond in their accounts, and one of the latest, Mr Audubon, has 
mentioned it to me as of extreme scarcity. In this country, they seem to he of 
oqual rarity, though they are generally placed in our list of British birds 
without any remark. Pennant observes, (Arct. Zool. ii. 348,) that he has seen 
them in the forests of Invercauld ; and Mr Selby says, ( Br . Orn. 257,) that, 
from the testimony of the gamekeepers, whom he had an opportunity of 
speaking with in the Highlands, they may be ranked only as occasional 
visitants. I am aware, however, of no instance of their being killed in this 
country. Pennant infers, from those which he saw in the month of August, 
that they breed here. “ Such a conclusion,” Mr Selby justly remarks, “ought 
scarcely to be inferred from this fact, as a sufficient interval of time had elapsed 
for these individuals to have emigrated from Norway, or other northern 
countries, to Scotland, after incubation, as they are known to breed as early as 
May in their natural haunts.” I have been unable to find any trace whatever 
of their ever breeding in this country ; most of the migrating species breed 
very early, and those that change their station for the .sake of finding a breeding 
place, commence the office of building, &c. immediately on their arrival, a 
necessary circumstance to enable the young to perform their migration before 
the change of season. Cuvier has formed his genus Corythus of this individual, 
which still remains the only one that has yet been placed in it ; but I am of 
opinion, that the Crimson-necked Bullfinch, ( Pyrrhula frontalis , Say,) should 
stand very near, or with it. Their alliance to the true Bullfinches is very great, 
and Mr Swainson’s genus, Crithagra, may form another near ally Ed. 
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