plumage blended, soft, glossy. The bill margined at the base with long spreading bristles. Wings of moderate length, third quill longest, second and first little shorter. Tail rather long, rounded.
Bill brownish-black. Iris dark brown. Feet blackish. Head, neck, fore part of the breast, and upper parts, black, the head, neck, and back glossed with blue. Sides of the breast, and under wing-coverts reddish-orange; abdomen white. Quills brownish-black, their anterior half orange, forming a broad transverse band on the wing. Two middle tail-feathers black, the rest black in their terminal half, yellow in the basal half.
Length 5 inches, extent of wings 6½; bill along the ridge 9/24, along the gap ½; tarsus ¾, middle toe 7/12.
Adult Female. Plate XL. Fig. 2.
Bill, feet and iris, as in the male. Head and upper parts brownish-grey, the former tinged with blue. Under parts greyish-white, the breast at the sides dull yellow. Band on the wings and at the base of the tail, pale yellow, tinged with green.
Dimensions nearly as in the male.
The Virginian Hornbeam, or Iron-wood Tree.
Ostrya virginica, Wild. Sp. Pl. vol. iv. p. 469. Pursh, Flor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 623.—Monœcia Polyandria, Linn. Amentaceæ, Juss.
This species is distinguished by its ovato-oblong leaves, which are somewhat cordate at the base, unequally serrated and acuminate, and its twin, ovate, acute cones. It is a small tree, attaining a height of from twenty to thirty feet, and a diameter of about one foot. The wood is white, and close-grained. The common name in America is Iron-wood, which it receives on account of the great hardness of the wood.
