58 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



forbidding the killing of our song birds; and 

 I am greatly pleased to note that where in my 

 boyhood I never saw this bird in our valley, now 

 he is a common summer resident. He is a special 

 friend to the farmer, as a favorite food with 

 him is the potato beetle. 



It is not easy to say which is more pleasing, 

 his dress or his song. His notes have often been 

 compared to those of the Robin, but the sim- 

 ilarity is but superficial. The Grosbeak's song 

 is much finer, pure and clear, a gladsome, ring- 

 ing melody. Gibson spoke of it as "suffused 

 with color like a luscious tropical fruit rendered 

 into sound. " To me it is one of the most appeal- 

 ing of the woodland songs, one that always ar- 

 rests my steps instantly when the first notes 

 reach my ears. 



The dress of the male is black above, with 

 rump, outer tail quills and two spots on the wing, 

 white. The breast and under wing coverts are 

 rose-red, the bill white. When in flight the white 

 wings marks are very conspicuous. The female 

 is so unlike in color as to be quite unrecog- 

 nizable, except for her form and size. Her 

 general color is sparrow-like brown with sulphur 

 yellow under the wings. She has no rose- red 

 on the breast and her bill is brown. 



They nest from Virginia to Maine and winter 

 in Central and South America. The nest, loosely 

 made of twigs, rootlets and plant fibre, is placed 

 in bushes or trees from five to twenty feet above 

 the ground. The light green eggs are marked 

 with brown. This Grosbeak is more than eight 

 inches long and rather thick-set. 



