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. _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). [Illustration: _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.