A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3

by Spencer Fullerton Baird; T. M. Brewer; Robert Ridgway

Guiraca cærulea, Swainson.

BLUE GROSBEAK.

Loxia cærulea, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 306.—Wilson, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 78, pl. xxiv, f. 6.—? Wagler, Isis, 1831, 525. Guiraca cærulea, Swainson, Birds Mex. in Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 438.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 499.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 230. Fringilla cærulea, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 140; V, 508, pl. cxxii. Coccoborus cæruleus, Sw. Birds II, 1837, 277.—Aud. Syn. 1839.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 204, pl. cciv.—Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 152.—Finsch, Abh. Nat. Brem. 1870, 339 (Mazatlan). Cyanoloxia cærulea, Bp. Conspectus, 1850, 502. Goniaphæa cærulea, Bp. Blue Grosbeak, Pennant, Arc. Zoöl. II, 1785, 351.

Guiraca cærulea.

Sp. Char. Brilliant blue; darker across the middle of the back. Space around base of the bill and lores, with tail-feathers, black. Two bands on the wing across the tips of the middle and secondary coverts, with outer edges of tertiaries, reddish-brown, or perhaps chestnut. Feathers on the posterior portion of the under surface tipped narrowly with grayish-white. Length, 7.25; wing, 3.50; tail, 2.80.

Female yellowish-brown above, brownish-yellow beneath; darkest across the breast. Wing-coverts and tertials broadly edged with brownish-yellow. Sometimes a faint trace of blue on the tail. The young resembles the female.

Hab. More southern United States from Atlantic to Pacific, south to Costa Rica. Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 378); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 301); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 9); Vera Paz (Salvin, Ibis, III, 352); Costa Rica (Lawr. IX, 102); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I, 552); Yucatan (Lawr. IX, 200).

The species described as Cyanospiza parellina in the Birds of North America, but which so far has not been actually detected north of Mexico, is a miniature Guiraca, more related, however, to the G. concreta than to cærulea. It is easily distinguished from the latter by more lobed bill, darker back and under parts, absence of rufous wing-bands, and inferior size. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50.

Males from the Pacific coast region (California, Colima, etc.) have tails considerably longer than eastern specimens, while those from California are of a much lighter and less purplish blue, the difference being much the same as between Sialia sialis and S. azurea.