168 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.
The flight of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is strong, even, and as
graceful as it is sustained. When travelling southward, at the approach
of autumn, or about the 1st of September, it passes high over the forest
trees, in the manner of the King Bird and the Robin, alighting toward
sunset on a tall tree, from which it in a few minutes dives into some close
thicket, where it remains during the night. The birds travel singly at
this season, as well as during spring.
I am indebted to my friend JOHN BACHMAN, for the following information
respecting this interesting Grosbeak : " One spring, I shot at a
beautiful male bird of this species, in the State of New York. It was
wounded in one foot only, and although I could not perceive any other
injury afterwards, it fell from the tree to the ground, and before it recovered
itself I secured it. Not having a cage at hand, I let it fly in the room
which I had made my study. Before an hour had elapsed, it appeared as
if disposed to eat; it refused corn and wheat, but fed heartily on bread
dipped in milk. The next day it was nearly quite gentle, and began to
examine the foot injured by the shot which was much swollen and quite
black. It began to bite off its foot at the wounded part, and soon succeeded
in cutting it quite across. It healed in a few days, and the bird used the
mutilated leg almost as well as the other, perching and resting upon it. It
required indeed some care to observe that the patient had been injured. I
procured a cage for it, to which it immediately became reconciled. It ate all
kinds of food, but preferred Indian corn meal and hempseed. It appeared
fonder of insects than birds of that genus are supposed to be, and ate grasshoppers
and crickets with peculiar relish. It would at times sit for hours
watching the flies, as these passed about it, and snatched at and often
secured such wasps as now and then approached the pieces of fruit thrown
into the cage. Very often, of fine moonshiny nights, it would tune its
pipe, and sing sweetly, but not loudly, remaining quietly perched and in
the same position. Whilst singing during the day, it was in the habit of
opening its wings, and gently raising them, somewhat in the manner of
the Mocking Bird. I found it very difficult to preserve this bird during
winter, and was obliged for that purpose to place it in a room heated by
a stove to summer temperature. It was a lively and very gentle companion
of my study for nearly three years ; it died of cold the third winter.
It frequently escaped from the cage, but never exhibited the least
desire to leave me, for it invariably returned to some portion of the house
at the approach of night. Its song continued about six weeks during
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 169
summer, and about two in the autumn; at all other periods it simply
uttered a faint chuck, and seemed to possess many of the ordinary habits
of the Blue Grosbeak.1'
The food of this beautiful bird consists of seeds of the cereal plants,
of grasses, and those of different kinds of berries, along with insects. The
young are three years in obtaining their full dress, and undergo their
changes very slowly. I have placed several of these birds of both sexes,
and of different ages, on a branch of the ground hemlock, the berries of
which they attack for their seeds.
o rri tabfluow
L O X I A L U D O V I C I A N A , Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 300.—Lath. Index Ornith. vol. i.
p. 370.
F R I N G I L L A L U D O V I C I A N A , Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States,
<. mi&xma, : :\)'v-?\to hBf! loon qa oiolrau .ybute ym dbomr bun 1 riDiriw
p. 113—Nultall, Manual, part l. p. 527.
R O S E - B B E A S T E D GROSBEAK, L O X I A ROSEA, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p . 135.
pi. 17- fig. 1- Male.—Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. pi. 14. fig. 2. Female.
C O C C O T I I R A S T E S L U D O V I C I A N A , Stvains. and Richards. Fauna. Bor. Amer. vol. ii.
p. 271.
Adult Male. Plate CXXVII. Fig. 1 , 1 .
Bill short, robust, bulging at the base, conical, acute; upper mandible
with its dorsal outline a little convex, the sides rounded, the edges
sharp; lower mandible with its dorsal outline also a little convex, the
sides rounded, the edges inflected ; the gap-line is deflected at the base,
then straight to the end. Nostrils basal, roundish, open, partly concealed
by the feathers. Head rather large, neck short, general form robust.
Legs of moderate length, rather strong ; tarsus anteriorly covered with a
few scutella, the upper long, posteriorly sharp ; toes scutellate above, free,
the lateral ones nearly equal; claws slender, arched, compressed, acute,
that of the hind toe not much larger.
Plumage soft and blended, but firm and elastic. Wings of moderate
length, broad, the second, third, and fourth quills longest, the secondaries
rounded. Tail longish, slightly emarginate, of twelve rounded feathers.
Bill white. Iris hazel. Feet greyish-blue. The head all round, including
the upper part of the neck, the hind neck, the back, wings, and
tail, glossy black ; the first row of coverts, the tips of the secondary coverts,
the basal half of the primary quills, and the inner webs towards
the end of the three lateral tail-feathers, white, as is the rump, that part,