CANADIAN PINE GROSBEAK 183 



syllables pe-wee f , is given by both sexes, and it is known 

 that the female occasionally sings, though often when the 

 song seems to be uttered by a female, the singer is really 

 a male of the preceding summer. The large bill of the 

 female should distinguish her from any brown, streaked 

 sparrow. 



Canadian Pine Grosbeak. Pinicola enucleator leucura 



9.08 



Ad. $. — Entire body rose-red, brightest on head and rump; 

 middle of back spotted with black; wings brownish-black, with 

 white wing-bars ; tail brownish-black; bill short and stout; tail 

 deeply forked. Ad. 9 and Im. — Top of head, rump, and some- 

 times the breast, washed with saffron or reddish; rest of body 

 dark gray ; wings and tail as in male. 



Nest, rather flat, of rootlets, in coniferous trees. -Eggs, green- 

 ish or bluish, spotted with brown. 



The Pine Grosbeak is a very irregular winter visitor in 

 southern New York and New England, often absent for 

 periods of several years, occasionally appearing in very 

 large flocks, at other times less abundantly. The first flocks 

 generally arrive in November or December, and all leave 

 southern New England for the north before April. In west- 

 ern and northern New England it occurs less irregularly. 

 A few birds breed on the high mountains of northern New 

 England and in the vicinity of the Connecticut Lakes. 

 When the Pine Grosbeak visits southern New England, it is 

 remarkably unsuspicious, allowing people to approach al- 

 most near enough to touch it. It feeds on the fruit of 

 the mountain ash, on cedar berries, on seeds of the white 

 ash, and, towards spring, on the buds of pine, spruce, and 

 maple. There are generally several red males in a large 

 flock of grayish birds. 



The common call of the Pine Grosbeak consists of two or 

 three clear whistled notes, that suggest the notes of the 

 Greater Yellow-legs j they may be written tee-ti, tee'-tee-ti, 



