Female without the white of quills, tail, and rump, and without any black or red. Above yellowish-brown streaked with darker; head with a central stripe above, and a superciliary on each side, white. Beneath dirty white, streaked with brown on the breast and sides. Under wing-coverts and axillars saffron-yellow.
In the male the black feathers of the back and sides of the neck have a subterminal white bar. There are a few black spots on the sides of the breast just below the red.
The young male of the year is like the female, except in having the axillaries, under wing-coverts, and a trace of a patch on the breast, light rose-red.
The depth of the carmine tint on the under parts varies a good deal in different specimens, but it is always of the same rosy hue.
Hab. Eastern United States to the Missouri plains; south to Ecuador. Honduras (Moore, P. Z. S. 1859, 58); Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Bogota (Scl. 1855, 154); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 301); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 17); Cuba (Cab. J. VI, 9); Ecuador (Scl. 1860, 298); Costa Rica (Cab. J. 61, 71); (Lawr. IX, 102); Panama (Lawr. VII, 1861, 297); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552); Yucatan (Lawr. Ann. IX, 210).
Hedymeles melanocephalus.
Habits. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak, during the summer months, appears to have a widely extended area of distribution, though nowhere a very abundant species, and one of somewhat irregular occurrence. It is found as far to the east as Nova Scotia, to the north as Selkirk Settlement and the valley of the Saskatchewan, and to the west as Nebraska. It winters in great numbers in Guatemala. In the last-named country, while abundant in the Vera Paz, it was not found at Dueñas, but was a common cage-bird in the city of Guatemala. It was also found common at Herradura, in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. Wyatt.
This bird was noticed on a single occasion near San Antonio by Mr. Dresser, but was not observed by Dr. Woodhouse in Texas, or in the Indian Territory. Sumichrast did not meet with it in Vera Cruz. At St. Stephens, N. B., Mr. Boardman found this species a regular summer visitant, but rare, nor did Mr. Verrill find it common in the western part of Maine. In Massachusetts this bird becomes more common, but is nowhere very abundant. It has been met with in various places in the eastern part of the State, but rarely, and only in restricted localities. In the western part of the State it is more numerous, as well as throughout the whole of the Connecticut Valley. At Springfield, Mr. Allen notes it as a summer visitant, breeding in the open woods, but not abundant. He is of the opinion that during the past twenty-five years this bird has increased in numbers in all parts of the State. Mr. Allen found this bird quite common in Southern Indiana, in Northern Illinois, and in Western Iowa, where he found it frequent in the groves along the streams. Dr. Coues mentions it as rare and only migratory in South Carolina. Mr. McIlwraith gives it as a summer resident in the vicinity of Hamilton, Canada, where it is very generally distributed throughout the open woods, arriving there the second week in May. It is also found throughout Vermont, in favorable situations in open woods, on the borders of streams. It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Randolph, where it regularly breeds.
Wilson, who enjoyed but few opportunities of studying the habits of this species, states that it eagerly feeds on the ripe fruit of the sour gum-tree. He was also aware of its fine song, its value as a caged bird, and that it frequently sings during the night.