1 68 



THE BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. 



stalks, lined, or not, with fine dead grasses; set loosely in branches of bush or 

 sapling, 6 to 20 feet up. Eggs: 4, greenish blue, boldly spotted or blotched with 

 reddish brown, dusky brown and lavender, most heavily about larger end. Av. 

 size 1.00X.68 ( 25.4 .\ 17.27). Season: East-side, May 20; West-side, May 25; 

 one Ijrood. 



Authorities. — ? "Friiigilla iiu'laiioccl^hala. Audulion, Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 

 519; pi. 373 (Col. Riv.)"; Baird, 499. Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. 

 Surv. Xn. pt. H. i860, 206. T( ?). C&S. Rh. D'. Ra. D-\ Ss^. J. B. E. 



Specimens. — P. B. E. 



THOSE who complain of nur lack of song-birds shoulil make the 

 acquaintance of this really skilled musician. He will not often be found 

 in the city parks, nor yet in the fir forests; but wherever there are deciduous 

 trees, not too dense, or tall thickets of willow and alder beside some lake 



or sluggish stream, there will this minstrel hold 

 fortli. The Grosbeak's song is not unlike the 

 longer lay of the Robin, but it is richer and 

 rounder as well as more suljdued. There is 



about it all a 

 lingering lan- 

 guor of the 

 Southland ; and 

 if the gentle- 

 man addressed 

 you, you would 

 expect him to 

 say "Sail." with 

 a soft cadence. 

 The Ijird's 

 carol has the 

 rolling quality 

 which serves to 

 connect it with 

 that of the 

 eastern Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak, but it is sweeter, more varied, and shows, if anything, 

 a still more strongly marked undertone of liquid harmonics. 



The male Grosbeak is, moreover, an indefatigable singer, choosing for 

 bis purpose the topmost sprays of alder or cottonwood. and taking pains 

 to give all intruders a wide berth during the concert hours. His attachment 

 to a given locality becomes apparent only after he has been pursued from 

 tree to tree in a wide circuit which brings up at the original station. And 



Taken in Clallam County. 



Photo by the Author. 



THE GROSBEAK'S CONCERT HALL. 



