136 
FRINGILLA VESPERTINA. 
to be distinguished generically from Fringilla , as Turdus 
from Sylvia ; and at all events, its claim is full as good, 
and perhaps better, than its near relation Pyrrhula * 
In the present work, however, we have preferred re- 
taining things as we found them, until we can apply 
ourselves to the work of a general reform, as announced 
in the first article of this volume. Though we regard 
the grosbeaks as a subgenus, others, going to the oppo* 
site extreme, have erected them into a separate family* 
composed of several genera. The evening grosbeak is, 
however, so precisely similar in form to the hawfinch* 
type of the group, as to defy the attempts of the most 
determined innovators to separate them. Its bill is as 
broad, as high, quite as strong and turgid, with both 
mandibles equal, the upper depressed and rounded 
above, and the commissure straight. It conforms even, 
in a slight degree, in the rhomboidal shape of the ends 
of the secondaries, — *a character so conspicuous in its 
analogue ; to which, in the distribution and transitions 
of its tints, though very different, it also bears a resem- 
blance. It is, however, of the four North American 
species of its group, the only one so strictly allied, for 
even the cardinal grosbeak, the most nearly related of 
these species, on account of its short rounded wings and 
other minor traits, might be separated, though fortu- 
nately it has not been as yet, to our knowledge ; the 
others have already. 
The evening grosbeak is eight and a half inches 
long ; its bill is of a greenish yellow, brighter on the 
margins, seven-eights of an inch long, five-eighths broad, 
the same in height ; the capistrum and lora are black ; 
the front is widely bright yellow, prolonged in a broad 
stripe over the eye to the ears ; the hind crown is black, 
intermixed with yellow, visible only on separating the 
feathers, but leading to the suspicion that at some 
period the yellow extends perhaps all over the crown ; 
the sides and inferior parts of the head, the whole neck, 
above and beneath, together with the interscapulars 
and breast, are of a dark olive brown, becoming lighter 
by degrees ; the scapulars are yellow, slightly tinged 
