284 
PYRRHULA ENUCLEATOR. 
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 Hud- 
son’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. The female lays four white 
eggs, which are hatched in June. Forster observes, 
that they visit Hudson’s Bay only in May, in their 
way to the north; and are not observed to return in 
the autumn; and that their food consists of birch- 
willow buds, and others of the same nature.* 
The pine grosbeak measures nine inches in length, 
and fourteen inches in extent; the head, neck, breast 
and rump, are of a rich crimson, palest on the breast; 
the feathers on the middle of the back are centred 
with arrow-shaped spots of black, and skirted with 
crimson, which gives the plumage a considerable flush 
of red there; those on the shoulders are of a deep slate 
colour, partially skirted with red, and light ash. The 
greater wing-coverts and next superior row are broadly 
tipt with white, and slightly tinged with reddish ; wings 
and tail, black, edged with light brown; tail, consider- 
ably forked ; lower part of the belly, ash colour ; vent 
feathers, skirted with white, and streaked with black; 
legs, glossy black; bill, a brownish horn colour, very 
thick, short, and hooked at the point; the upper man- 
dible overhanging the lower considerably, approaching 
in its form to that of the parrot; base of the bill, covered 
with recumbent hairs of a dark brown colour. The 
whole plumage, near the roots, as in most other birds, 
is of a deep bluish ash colour. The female was half an 
inch shorter, and answered nearly to the above des- 
cription ; only, those parts that in the male were crim- 
son, were in her of a dirty yellowish colour. The 
female, according to Forster, referred to above, has 
those parts which in the male are red, more of an 
crange tint; and he censures Edwards for having 
* Philosophical Transactions , lxii, p. 402. 
