Common Characters. ♂. Head and upper parts (except rump) deep black. Two broad bands across coverts, a large patch on base of primaries, and terminal half of inner webs of tail-feathers, pure white. Breast carmine or cinnamon; axillars and lining of wing carmine or gamboge. ♀. Black replaced by ochraceous-brown; other parts more streaked.
H. ludovicianus. Rump and lower parts white; lining of wing, and patch on breast, rosy carmine. No nuchal collar. Female. Lining of wing saffron-yellow; breast with numerous streaks. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, south, in winter, to Ecuador.
H. melanocephalus. Rump and lower parts cinnamon-rufous; lining of wing and middle of abdomen gamboge-yellow. A nuchal collar of rufous. Female. Lining of wing lemon-yellow; breast without streaks; abdomen tinged with lemon-yellow.
Crown continuous black. No post-ocular rufous stripe. Hab. Mountains of Mexico, and Central Rocky Mountains of United States … var. melanocephalus.
Crown divided by a longitudinal rufous stripe; a distinct post-ocular stripe of the same. Hab. Western Province of United States, south, in winter, to Colima … var. capitalis.
Hedymeles ludovicianus, Swainson.
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.
Loxia ludoviciana, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 306.—Wilson, Am. Orn. >II, 1810, 135, pl. xvii, f. 2. Guiraca ludoviciana, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 438.—Bonap. List, 1838.—Ib. Consp. 1850, 501.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 497.—Samuels, 328. Fringilla ludoviciana, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 166; V, 513, pl. cxxvii. Pyrrhula ludoviciana, Sab. Zoöl. App. Franklin’s Narr. Coccothraustes ludoviciana, Rich. List, Pr. Br. Ass. 1837. Coccoborus ludovicianus, Aud. Syn. 1839, 133.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 209, pl. 205.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 267. “Goniaphea ludoviciana, Bowdich.” Hedymeles ludoviciana, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 153. Fringilla punicea, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 921 (male). Loxia obscura, Gmelin, I, 1788, 862. Loxia rosea, Wilson, Am. Orn. pl. xvii, f. 2. Coccothraustes rubricollis, Vieillot, Galerie des Ois. I, 1824, 67, pl. lviii.
Sp. Char. Upper parts generally, with head and neck all round, glossy black. A broad crescent across the upper part of the breast, extending narrowly down to the belly, axillaries, and under wing-coverts, carmine. Rest of under parts, rump and upper tail-coverts, middle wing-coverts, spots on the tertiaries and inner great wing-coverts, basal half of primaries and secondaries, and a large patch on the ends of the inner webs of the outer three tail-feathers, pure white. Length, 8.50 inches; wing, 4.15.