shows his early force and vigour, as well as his skill. The Departure of Louis XVIII. (Versailles), the Embarkation of Madame d Angouleme (Bordeaux), the plafond of the Egyptian room in the Louvre, and finally his Hercules and Dk>medes, exhibited in 1835, testify only that Gros s efforts in accordance with the frequent councils of his old master David to stem the rising tide of Romanticism served but to damage his once brilliant reputation. Exasperated by criticism arid the consciousness of failure, Gros sought refuge in the grosser pleasures of life, but suddenly his vital forces failed him, and on the 25th June 1835 he was found drowned on the shores of the Seine near Sevres. From a paper which he had placed in his hat it became known that " las de la vie, et trahi par les dernieres faculte"s qui la lui rendaient supportable, il avait re"solu de s en ddfaire." The number of Gros s pupils was very great, and was consider ably augmented when, in 1815, David quitting Paris made over his own classes to him. Gros was decorated and named baron of the empire by Napoleon, after the Salon of 1808, at which he had exhibited the Battle of Eylau. Under the Restoration he became a member of the Institute, professor at the E2ole des Beaux Arts, and was named chevalier of the order of St Michel.
M. Delecluze gives a brief notice of his life in Louis David et Son Temps, and Julius Meyer s Gcschichtcdcrmodcrnenfranzosischen Malerci contains an excellent criticism on his works.
GROSBEAK (French, Grosbec), a name very indefinitely
applied to many birds belonging to the families Fringillidce
and Ploceidae of modern ornithologists, and perhaps to some
members of the Emberizidue and Tanagridce, but always to
birds distinguished by the great size of their bill. Taken
alone it is commonly a synonym of HAWFINCH (q.v.), but
a prefix is most usually added to indicate the species, as
Pine-Grosbeak, Cardinal-Grosbeak, and the like. By earlier
writers the word was generally given as an equivalent of the
Linnsean Loxia, but that genus, as first established, has
been found to include many forms which, according to more
recent notions, cannot possibly be placed in the same Family.
The Pine-Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) is, with the
exception of the Hawfinch just mentioned, the best known
species to which the name is applied. It inhabits the
conifer-zone of both the Old and the New Worlds, seeking,
in Europe and probably elsewhere, a lower latitude as winter
approaches often journeying in large flocks ; and stragglers
have occasionally reached the British Islands, though the
records of not more than half a dozen such occurrences can
be wholly trusted (Yarrell, Br. Birds, ed. 4, ii. pp. 177-
179). In structure and some of its habits much resembling
a Bullfinch (see FINCH, vol. ix, p. 192), but much exceed
ing that bird in size, it lias the plumage of a Crossbil
(vol. vi. p. 614), and appears to undergo exactly the same
changes as do the members of the restricted genus Loxia,
the young being of a dull greenish-grey streaked witl
brownish-black, the adult hens tinged with golden-green
and the cocks glowing with crimson-red on nearly all the
body-feathers, this last colour being replaced after moultin
in confinement by bright yellow. Nests of this species
were found in 1821 by Zetterstedt near Juckasjarwi in
Swedish Lapland, but little was really known with certainty
concerning its nidification until 1855, when the late M
Wolley, after two years ineffectual search, succeeded ir
obtaining in the not very distant district of Muonionisk
well-authenticated specimens with the eggs, both of whicl
are like exaggerated Bullfinches . The food of this specie
seems to consist of the seeds and buds of many sorts o
trees, though the staple may very possibly be those of som
kind of pine. The cock has a clear and pleasing song
which makes him in many countries a favourite cage-bird
and the notes of the hen may even be deemed to qualif)
her as a musician of no small merit.
Allied to the Pine-Grosbeak are a number of species of
mailer size, but its equals in beauty of plumage. 1 These
lave been referred to several genera, such as Carpodacns,
ropasser, Bycanetes, Uragus, and others ; but possibly
larpodaciis is sufficient to contain all. Most of them are
atives of the Old World, and chiefly of its eastern division,
>ut several inhabit the western portion of North America,
md one, C. githagineus (of which there seem to be at least
wo local races), is an especial native of the deserts, or
heir borders, of Arabia and North Africa, extending even
o some of the Canary Islands a singular modification in
he habitat of a form which one would be apt to associate
ixclusively with forest trees, and especially conifers.
The Virginian Grosbeak, or Virginian Nightingale of
many writers, Cardinalis virginianus, next claims notice
lere, though doubts may be entertained as to the family
to which it really belongs. No less remarkable for its
iright carmine attire, and the additional embellishment of
an elongated crest of the same colour, than for its fine
song, it has been an object of attraction almost ever since
the settlement of its native country by Europeans. All
American ornithologists speak of its easy capture and its
ready adaptation to confinement, which for nearly three
- enturies have helped to make it a popular cage-bird on
both sides of the Atlantic. The vocal powers possessed by the cock are to some extent shared by the hen, though she is denied the vivid hues of her partner, and her plumage, with exception of the wings and tail, which are of a dull red, is light olive above and brownish-yellow beneath. This species inhabits the eastern parts of the United States southward of 40 N. lat., and also occurs in the Bermudas. It is represented in the south-west of North America by other forms that by some writers are deemed species, and in the northern parts of South America by the C. phoeniceu*, which would really seem entitled to distinction. Another kindred bird, placed from its short and broad bill in a different genus, and known as Pyrrhidoxia sinuata or the Texan Cardinal, is found on the southern borders of the United States and in Mexico ; while among North American " Grosbeaks " must also be named the birds belonging to the genera Guiraca and Hedymeles the former especially exemplified by the beautiful blue G. ccendea, and the latter by the brilliant rose-breasted //. ludovicianus, which last extends its range into Canada. The species of the Old World which, though commonly called "Grosbeaks," certainly belong to the family Ploceidce, may be in this work more conveniently treated under the
title of WEAVER-BIRDS (q.v.).
GROSE, Francis (c. 1730-1791), a celebrated English
antiquary, son of a wealthy Swiss jeweller settled in England,
was born at Greenford in Middlesex, about the year 1730.
The bias of his mind towards heraldry and antiquities
showed itself early ; and his father, indulging it, procured
him a position in the Herald s College. In 1763, being
then Richmond Herald, he sold his tabard, and shortly
afterwards became adjutant and paymaster of the Hamp
shire militia, where, as he himself humorously observed,
the only account-books he kept were his right and left
pockets, into the one of which he received, and from the
other of which he paid. This carelessness exposed him to
serious losses ; and after a vain attempt to repair them by
accepting a captaincy in the Surrey militia, the competency
left him by his father being squandered, he began to turn to
account his excellent education and his powers as a draughts-
1 Many of them are described and beautifully figured in the Monographic des Loxiens of the late Prince C. L. Bonaparte and Professor Schlegel (Leyden and Diisseldorf, 1850), a work which includes, however, all the Crossbills, Redpolls, and Linnets then known to the authors, while it excludes many birds that an English writer would have to call " Grosbeaks. " T "
