The song of the western species is described by Mr. Nuttall as fully equal, if not superior, to that of the Rose-breasted. He met with it on the central table-lands of the Rocky Mountains, along the upper branches of the Colorado River, where he found it frequenting the thick groves of the streams, and where, throughout its dense forests, the powerful song and the inimitable voice of this “most delightful Finch” cheered that naturalist amidst the wildest desolation of that “forest primeval,” where this superb vocalist made the woods echo and re-echo to its untiring song. These notes, greatly resembling those of its eastern relative, may be heard from early dawn almost even to the close of the following night. These are described as loud, varied, high-toned, and melodious, rising and falling with the sweetest cadence, fascinating the listener most powerfully with sensations of a pleasing sadness, its closing note seeming like a shrill cry of appealing distress, and then sinking faintly on the ear. It is described as very shy and retiring in its habits, and can be but very rarely observed closely while thus engaged in song. On these occasions the bird is said to sit up conspicuously on a lofty bough, near the summit of the tree, his throat swelling with the excitement, and seeming to take a great delight in the sound of his own music. Mr. Sumichrast found this bird on the Plateau of Mexico, and also in the alpine regions of Vera Cruz. It was found to the height of 8,300 feet, and never lower than 4,000. The eggs of this species are of an oblong-oval shape, one end but slightly more rounded than the other, and measure 1.10 of an inch in length by .65 in breadth. They have a bluish-green ground, blotched and splashed with markings of a rusty-brown, for the most part more numerous about the larger end. GENUS GUIRACA, SWAINSON. _Guiraca_, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour. III, Nov. 1827, 350. (Type, _Loxia cærulea_, L.) _Coccoborus_, SWAINSON, Class. Birds, II, 1837, 277. (Same type.) [Illustration: _Guiraca cærulea._] GEN. CHAR. Bill very large, nearly as high as long; the culmen slightly curved, with a rather sharp ridge; the commissure conspicuously angulated just below the nostril, the posterior leg of the angle nearly as long as the anterior, both nearly straight. Lower jaw deeper than the upper, and extending much behind the forehead; the width greater than the length of the gonys, considerably wider than the upper jaw. A prominent knob in the roof of the mouth. Tarsi shorter than the middle toe; the outer toe a little longer, reaching not quite to the base of the middle claw; hind toe rather longer than to this base. Wings long, reaching the middle of the tail; the secondaries and tertials nearly equal; the second quill longest; the first less than the fourth. Tail very nearly even, shorter than the wings.