grossbeaks

She began to catch glimpses of bird life, -- saucy jays and glorious-colored magpies and grossbeaks.

The Snowshoe Trail Edison Marshall 1930

Hour after hour I have seen the mother of a brood of blue grossbeaks pass from the nearest meadow to the tree that held her nest, with a cricket or grasshopper in her bill, while her better-dressed half was singing serenely on a distant tree or pursuing his pleasure amid the branches.

A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891

Another pair of blue grossbeaks built in a graveyard within the city limits.

A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891

There were finches of a violet-black, with orange-colored breasts and heads, some blue or golden-throated grossbeaks, and birds adorned with

Aventures d'un jeune naturaliste. English Lucien Biart 1863

Three grossbeaks (_loxia coccothraustes_) appeared some years ago in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot.

The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1 Gilbert White 1756

SPECIES TO LOOK FOR: Three of the top species in central Iowa are rose breasted grossbeaks, any kind of hummingbird and white-throated sparrows.

Photos - DesMoinesRegister.com 2010

Two or three rose-breasted grossbeaks piped their liquid, childlike arias; towhees, at least a half-dozen of them, flung forth their loud, explosive trills that have a real musical quality; several cardinals whistled as if they meant to drown out all the other voices; scarlet and summer tanagers drawled their good-natured tunes, while their rich robes gleamed in the level rays of the rising sun; running like silver threads through all the other music, could be heard the fine trills of the field sparrows; the swinging chant of the creeping warblers and the loud rattle of the Tennessee warblers ran high up in the scale, furnishing a gossamer tenor; that golden optimist, the Baltimore oriole, piped his cheery recitative in the tops of the trees; chickadees supplied the minor strains and tufted titmice the alto; four or five turtle doves soothed the ear with their meditative cooing; while the calls and songs of numerous jays and a few yellow-breasted chats made a kind of trombone accompaniment.

Our Bird Comrades 1896