42 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



[Vol. XXV. 



ed breeding in Arizona in 1884, in Califor- 

 nia in 1887, and eventually was found to 

 nest locally in the western mountains as 

 far north as British Columbia. ' 



Although considerable light has been 

 thrown on the breeding of these western 

 birds, our knowledge of those that visit 

 us in the east has not advanced to the same 

 degree. The Mackenzie and Athabasca 

 valleys have been well worked, but no 

 Evening Grrosbeaks have been found there 

 in summer. Preble failed to locate them 

 in the Churchill River system, and the 

 country south of Moose Factory on James 

 Bay has often been traversed without re- 

 sult. There is still room for the species 

 in unexplored Ungava, but its winter dis- 

 tribution seems to indicate a more western 

 origin. L. 0. Scott, both alone and in as- 

 sociation with M. Bedson, * reported the 

 finding of nests just outside of Winnipeg ; 

 he repeated, too, some Indian assertions 

 about the bird breeding in the Peace River 

 district. Later S. S. Stansell ' reported 

 nests near Edmonton, Alberta, and de- 

 fended his statements when questioned. 

 None of these records were taken seriously, 

 as they came from localities where other 

 men had worked without discovering cor- 

 roborative evidence ; but some of them at 

 least may have to be reconsidered in view 

 of the new data that was obtained last 

 year. Albert Lano, ^ for example, has re- 

 ])orted that he saw the species in July and 

 August, IPOO and 1901, in Aitkin Co. Min- 

 nesota; and Chas. E. Johnson' has record- 

 ed them as present in Lake Co. of the same 

 state during the corresponding months of 

 1914 and 1915. Most important of all, 

 William Rowan * found the birds at Gimli, 

 Man., about forty miles north of Winni- 

 peg, in late May and early June, 1920. 

 They appeared to be mating at the time, 

 and remained there until July and early 

 August. On July 26 he took a bird of the 

 vear still being fed bv its mother at Indian 



s The history of this species will alwavs be 

 associated with the name of the youne oi-nitholo- 

 grist Francis .T. Bittwell. who was killed In the 

 presence of his wife, during their honevmoon, 

 while attempting: to reach a nest of the "Western 

 Evening Grosbeak in New Mexico. 



4 Ottawa Field-Naturalist, xiii. 1899-1900. 



% Auk. xxvl, 1909, pp. 390-400, and Ottawa Field- 

 Naturalist, xxiii. 1909. pp. 125-127. 



6 Auk, xxxvii, 1920, p. 455. 



7 Ibid., pp. 541-551. 



8 Ibid., pp. 585-586. 



Bay, yhoal Lake, on the Manitoba-Ontario 

 boundary (not the lake of the same name 

 north of Winnipeg). This is the finst sub- 

 stantiated breeding record for tiie species 

 away from the western mountain region. It 

 may also be noted that the writer '^ found 

 the birds in late May, 1917, at the other 

 Shoal Lake north of Winnipeg, not far 

 west of Gimli; at the time, however, he re- 

 garded them merely as late migrants and 

 in consequence made no systematic searcli 

 for' nests. 



There is some evidence therefore to show 

 that the nesting area of the Eastern Even- 

 ing Gro.sbeak includes not only the coun- 

 try from which it was reported by Major 

 Delafield in the original description of the 

 species, ])ut that it extends along the north- 

 ern forest belt from Lake Superior to some 

 point westward. It is true that Mr. D. 

 Blakely of the Victoria Memorial Museum 

 collected ornithological specimens through- 

 out the .season of 1919 on Lac Seul, Ont., 

 about 125 miles east and a little north of 

 Indian Bay, without seeing it, and that 

 Capt. Angus Buchanan ^" traversed the 

 country between Prince Albert, Sask., and 

 Reindeer Lake with equally negative re- 

 sults. But these apparently blank spaces 

 in the range of the bird can be explained 

 by the supposition that it is nearly as er- 

 ratic in its summer as in its winter dis- 

 tribution, changing its breeding localities 

 from summer to summer in the same way 

 as some other northern species appear to 

 do, for example, the Crossbills, the Pine 

 Grosbeak and the Bohemian Waxwing. 

 The Evening Grosbeak, in fact, does seem 

 to be erratic in this respect in the w^est, 

 where its breeding in any locality at one 

 season is no surety that it will breed there 

 the next, or that it bred there the season 

 before. Such an irregularity would largely 

 ex]ilain why we have isolated records that 

 remain unverified by previous or later 

 work in suspected or adjacent regions. 

 Moreover the fact that the nests of the 

 EveniuG' Grosbeak are situated (in British 

 Columbia at least) high in the taller ever- 

 green trees and that the birds become re- 

 tiring and suspicious in the breeding sea- 

 son further reduces the probability of find- 



9 Can. Field-Naturalist, xxxiii, 1919, p. 14. 

 m Fleming-, Can. Field-Naturalist, xxxiii. 1919. 

 pp. 109-113. 



