33. FRINGILLA LUDOVICIANA, BONAPARTE.

FEMALE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.

BONARPRTE, PLATE XV. FIG. II.

THOUGH Several figures have been published of the very showy male rose-breasted grosbeak, the humble plumage of the female and young has never been described. It would, however, have better served the purposes of science, if the preference had been given to the latter, though less calculated to attract the eye, inasmuch as striking colours are far less liable to be misunderstood or confounded in the description of species, than dull and blended tints. It will be seen by the synonymy, that nominal species have in fact been introduced into the systems. But if it be less extraordinary that the female and young should have been formed into species, it is certainly unaccountable that the male itself should have been twice described in the same works, once as a finch, and once as a grosbeak. This oversight originated with Pennant, and later compilers have faithfully copied it, though so easy to rectify.

The female rose-breasted grosbeak is eight inches long, and twelve and a half inches in extent. The bill has not the form either of the typical grosbeaks, or of the bullfinches, but is intermediate between them, though more compressed than either; it is three quarters of an inch long, and much higher than broad; instead of being pure white, as that of the male, it is dusky horn colour above, and whitish beneath and on the margins; the irides are hazel brown; the crown is of a blackish-brown, each feather being skirted with light olive-brown, and faintly spotted with white on the centre; from the nostrils a broad band passes over the eye, margining the crown to the neck; à brown streak passes through the eye, and the inferior orbit is white; more of the brown arises from the angle of the mouth, spreading on the auriculars; on the upper part of the

neck above, the feathers are whitish, edged with pale flaxen, and with a broad, oblong, medial, blackish brown spot at tip; on the remaining part of the neck and interscapulars this blackish spot is wider, so that the feathers are properly of that colour, broadly edged with pale flaxen; the back and rump, and the upper tailcoverts, are of a lighter brown, with but a few merely indicated and lighter spots; the whole inferior surface of the bird is white, but not very pure; the sides of the throat are dotted with dark brown, the dots occupying the tips of the feathers; the breast and flanks are somewhat tinged with flaxen, (more dingy on the latter,) and each feather being blackish along the middle at tip, those parts appear streaked with that colour; the middle of the throat, the belly, and under tail-coverts, are unspotted; the base of the plumage is every where plumbeous; the wings are rounded, less than four inches long, entirely dusky brown, somewhat darker on the spurious wing, all the feathers, both quills and coverts, being lighter on their edges; the exterior webs of the middle and larger wing-coverts are whitish at tip, constituting two white bands across the wings; the primaries are whitish at the origin beneath the spurious wing; the secondaries are inconspicuously whitish externally at tip, that nearest the body having a very conspicuous whitish spot; the lower wing-coverts are of a bright buff; and as they are red in the male, afford an excellent essential character for the species; the tail is three inches long, nearly even, and of a paler dusky brown; the two outer feathers are slightly edged internally with whitish, but without the least trace of the large spot so conspicuous in the male, and which is always more or less apparent in the young of that sex; the feet are dusky, the tarsus measuring seven-eighths of an inch.

The young male is at first very similar to the female, and is, even in extreme youth, paler and somewhat more spotted, but a little of the beautiful rose colour, of which the mother is quite destitute, soon begins to make its appearance, principally in small dots on the

throat this colour spreads gradually, and the wings and tail, and soon after the head, blacken, of course presenting as they advance in age a great variety of combinations. For the description of the beautiful adult male, we shall refer to Wilson, whose description is good, but not having stated any particulars about the habits of the species, we shall subjoin the little that is known of them. Though long since recorded to be an inhabitant of Louisiana, whence it was first received in Europe, recent observations, and the opinion of Wilson, had rendered this doubtful, and it was believed to be altogether an arctic bird, averse to the warm climate of the Southern States, and hardly ever appearing even in the more temperate. Its recent discovery in Mexico is, therefore, a very interesting and no less remarkable fact, and we may safely conclude that this bird migrates extensively according to season, spending the summer in the north, or in the mountains, and breeding there, and in winter retiring southward, or descending into the plains; being, however, by no means numerous in any known district, or at any season, though perhaps more frequent on the borders of Lake Ontario. Its favourite abode is large forests, where it affects the densest and most gloomy retreats. The nest is placed among the thick foliage of trees, and is constructed of twigs outside, and lined with fine grasses within; the female lays four or five white eggs, spotted with brown. This may also be called an evening grosbeak," for it also sings during the solemn stillness of night, uttering a clear, mellow, and harmonious note.

We have placed this species in our subgenus Coccothraustes. It is probably because he laboured under the mistake that all the grosbeaks removed from Loxia had been placed in Pyrrhula by Temminck, that Mr Sabine has made it a bullfinch; and in truth the bill very much resembles those of that genus, so that the species is intermediate between the two. Swainson places it, together with the blue grosbeak, Fringilla (Coccothraustes) cærulea, in a new genus which he calls Guiraca, but without as yet characterizing

Mr

it. These species have, it is true, a bill somewhat different from that of the typical Coccothraustes, being much less thick and turgid, and higher than broad; the upper mandible being larger than the lower, and covering its margins entirely, compressed on the sides, making the ridge very distinct, (not rounded above,) and curved from the base, but at tip especially : the margins of both are angular.

34. FRINGILLA CYANEA, BONAPARTE.

FEMALE INDIGO FINCH.

BONAPARTE, PLATE XV. FIG. IV.

THE remarkable disparity existing between the plumage of the different sexes of the common indigo bird renders it almost indispensably requisite that the female, unaccountably neglected by Wilson, as he generally granted this distinction in similar, and often in less important, cases, should be described in this work. Hardly any North American bird more absolutely stands in need of being thus illustrated than the beautiful finch which is now the subject of our consideration. It could scarcely be expected that the student should easily recognize the brilliant indigo bird of Wilson's second volume in the description which is now given of it. But, however simple in its appearance, the plumage of the female is far more interesting and important than that of the male, as it belongs equally to the young, and to the adult male after the autumnal moult, and previous to the change which ensues in the spring,—a large proportion of the life of the bird.

The importance of a knowledge of these changes will also be duly estimated on recurring to the copious synonymy, by which it will be seen that several nominal species have been made by naturalists who chanced to describe this bird during its transitions from one state to another. Errors of this kind too frequently disfigure the fair pages of zoology, owing to the ridiculous

ambition of those pseudo naturalists, who, without taking the trouble to make investigations, for which indeed they are perhaps incompetent, glory in proclaiming a new species established on a single individual, and merely on account of a spot, or some such trifling particular! The leading systematists who have enlarged the boundaries of our science have too readily admitted such species, partly compelled to it perhaps by the deficiency of settled principles. But the more extensive and accurate knowledge which ornithologists have acquired within a few years relative to the changes that birds undergo, will render them more cautious, in proportion as the scientific world will be less disposed to excuse them for errors arising from this source. Linné may be profitably resorted to as a model of accuracy in this respect, his profound sagacity leading him in many instances to reject species which had received the sanction even of the experienced Brisson. Unfortunately Gmelin, who pursued a practice directly the opposite, and compiled with a careless and indiscriminating hand, has been the oracle of zoologists for twenty years. The thirteenth edition of the Systema Nature undoubtedly retarded the advancement of knowledge instead of promoting it, and if Latham had erected his ornithological edifice on the chaste and durable Linnean basis, the superstructure would have been far more elegant. But he first misled Gmelin, and afterwards suffered himself to be misled by him, and was, therefore, necessarily betrayed into numerous errors, although he at the same time perceived and corrected many others of his predecessor. We shall not enumerate the nominal species authorized by their works in relation to the present bird, since they may be ascertained by consulting our list of synonyms. On comparing this list with that furnished by Wilson, it will be seen that the latter is very incomplete. Indeed, as regards synonymy, Wilson's work is not a little deficient; notwithstanding which, however, it will be perpetuated as a monument of original and faithful