THE GROSBEAKS 



It looks like a large goldfinch, though it is a less bril- 

 liant yellow, has larger patches of white on its wings and 

 wears its dark cap back on its head, above its yellow fore- 

 head, instead of pulled down to its eyes and bill. It 

 blends perfectly with the yellows and olive-browns of some 

 of our western landscapes. 



It feeds on berries, seeds, and insects. It becomes very 

 tame. 



THE BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK 



Finch Family — Fringillidce 



THE Black-headed Grosbeak has cinnamon-brown 

 upper parts, breast, band about the neck, and 

 rump; yellow belly, black head, wings, and tail; wings 

 with two white bars and a white patch; tail with while 

 tips. Female brovmish-black and buff above; under parts 

 tawny and yellow, streaked with dark; chin, sides of 

 throat, and line over eye whitish. 



"The Black-headed Grosbeak takes the place in the 

 West of the rosebreast of the East, and, like it, is a line 

 songster. Like it, also, the blackhead readily resorts to 

 orchards and gardens and is common in agricultural dis- 

 tricts. The bird has a very powerful bill and easily 

 crushes or cuts into the firmest fruit. It feeds upon 

 cherries, apricots, and other fruits, and also does some 

 damage to peas and beans, but it is so active a foe of 

 certain horticultural pests that we can afford to overlook 

 its faults. ... It eats scale insects, cankerworms, codling 

 moths, and many jflower beetles, which do incalculable 

 damage to cultivated flowers and to ripe fruit." ^ 



1 Farmers' Bulletin 513, Biological Survey, Dr. Henry W. Henshaw. 



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