Volume 1

American ornithology; or the natural history of the birds of the United States / By Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte. Edited by Robert Jameson.

  • Alexander Wilson
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American ornithology; or the natural history of the birds of the United States / By Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte. Edited by Robert Jameson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    even in the cage ; legs, a brownish flesh colour; hind heel, very long; bill, a bluish horn colour ; eye, hazel. In the month of June this plumage gradually changes to a brownish yellow, like that of the female, which has the back streaked with brownish black; whole lower parts, dull yellow; bill, reddish flesh colour ; legs and eyes as in the male. The young birds retain the dress of the female until the early part of the succeed- ing spring; the plumage of the female undergoes no material change of colour. GENUS X.—QUISCALUS, Vieitt. 56. QUISCALUS FERRUGINEUS, BONAPARTE. .*”* o GRACULA FERRUGINEA, WILS. ; RUSTY GRAKLE. WILSON, PLATE XXI. FIG. Il]. — ADULT MALE IN SPRING. HERE is a single species described by one of the most judicious naturalists of Great Britain no less than five different times!—the greater part of these des- eriptions is copied by succeeding naturalists, whose Synonymes it is unnecessary to repeat: so great is the uncertainty in judging, from a mere examination of their dried or stuffed skins, of the particular tribes of birds, many of which, for several years, are constantly varying in the colours of their plumage, and, at different seasons, or different ages, assuming new and very dif- ferent appearances. Even the size is by no means a safe criterion, the difference in this respect between the male and female of the same species (as in the one now before us) being sometimes very considerable. This bird arrives in Pennsylvania, from the north early in October; associates with the redwings, and, cow-pen buntings, frequents corn fields, and places where grasshoppers are plenty; but Indian corn, at that season, seems to be its principal food. It is a very silent bird, having only now and then a single note, or chuck. We see them occasionally until about the VOL. I. P 8