130 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" Upon the wliole, Crow-blackbirds are so useful that no general 

 war of extermination should be waged against them. While it must 

 be admitted that at times they injure crops, such depredations can 

 usually be prevented. On the other hand, by destroying insects they 

 do incalculable good." 



Family FRINGILLIDiE— Finches, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, 



ETC. 



Our sparrows and their allies, taken together, form a very extensive 

 family of very beautiful as well as useful birds. Like the warblers, 

 they occupy themselves with searching for and destroying insects; 

 but this is not all they do that is good. In fall, winter, and early 

 spring, when mother earth has lost her brilliant green and rests in 

 sombre browns or beneath ice and snow, the longspurs, snow buntings, 

 snowbirds, and some of the sparrows that have remained with us, are 

 busily engaged in gathering for themselves a living. They hop and 

 fly about from place to place searching for and picking up little seeds 

 of grass, grain, and weeds, of shrubs and trees, and appropriating the 

 same to their use, chirping merrily as they work away. 



514. Coccothraustes vespertinus (Coo/jer). — Evening Gros- 



beak. 



West Point, November 19, 1885 (L. Bruner); "a few times in winter" 

 (Aughey); "Migratory, rare" (Taylor); "East to Manitoba, Michigan, and 

 Illinois" (Goss); Peru, rare (G. A. Coleman); North Platte, "accidental vis- 

 itant; a pair was seen in town frequently, and one killed May 11, 1895" (M. 

 K. Barnum). 



515. Pinicola enucleator (imn.). — Pine Grosbeak. 



Grand Island (F. J. Brezee); Alda (Bull. No. 2, Div. Ornith., p. 178); 

 "This species occurs in southeastern Nebraska in winter, but in small num- 

 bers" (Aughey); "Winter resident, rare, has been found as early as Novem- 

 ber and late as February" (Taylor); "Casually to Kansas, Kentucky, etc." 

 (Goss); Lincoln, Nov. 11, 1895 (L. Bruner); Omaha (L Skow); Omaha, "an 

 irregular winter visitor— usually met with after cold north winds in midwinter " 

 (L S.Trostler). 



517. Carpodacus purpureus ((rmg^.). — Purple Finch. 



West Point, Omaha, Lincoln (L. Bruner) ; " have only seen this bird in Nebraska 

 in October" (Aughey); "Has been found in the state in May and October'' 

 (Taylor); "West to the high plains" (Goss); Omaha (L. Skow); Peru, not 

 common (G. A. Coleman); "An irregular migrant and winter resident — occurs 

 about Omaha during latter October to April 15 " (L S. Trostler); Lincoln, Oct. 

 30 (D. A. Haggard). 



