LAND BIRDS. 465 



not aroused until daylight streaks the east when they come forth to begin 

 as before. * * * Their ordinary voice when they are engaged in 

 procuring food, consists of a single rather screaming note, which from its 

 tone I at first supposed to be one of alarm, but soon discovered my error. 

 At other times, particularly about midday, the male sometimes selects 

 a lofty pine branch, and there attemps a song; but it is a miserable failure. 

 The note is a single warbhng call, exceedingly like the early part of the 

 Hobin's song, but not so sweet, and checked as though the performer were 

 out of breath. The song, if it may be called such, is to me a most weari- 

 some one. Am constantly listening to hear the stave continued and am 

 as constantly disappointed (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, IV, 1879, pp. 70-71). 



As intimated alread}^ the Evening Grosbeak is merely a winter visitor 

 to Michigan, and not a regular visitor at that. Nevertheless, its ap- 

 pearances seem to have become more frequent in recent years, and there 

 is some reason to believe that the species is extending its range eastward 

 and may eventually become a regular winter resident of the state. After 

 its discovery in 1823 it does not appear to have been noted in the state 

 until 1869, when Dr. Morris Gibbs met with it at Kalamazoo. He also noted 

 it there in 1872, 1873, 1874, 1878 and 1879, sometimes singly and sometimes 

 in flocks. It was reported from Albion in the spring of 1886 by O. B. 

 Warren, and near Brighton by A. B. Covert in December of the same year. 

 In 1887, Mr. N. A. Eddy of Bay City reported it, and during the winter 

 of 1889-90 it was reported very generally from all over the Lower Peninsula. 

 In 1893, P. A. Taverner found a flock in the city of Port Huron, and it was 

 reported in March, 1897, by Percy Selous at Greenville, and in December, 

 1899, by W. H. Dunham in Kalkaska county. In April, 1900, Mr. Dunham 

 again reported it in Kalkaska county, and in December of the same year 

 Mr. Melville reported it at Sault Ste. Marie, ]\Iich. In December 1903 

 it was reported from Prescpie Isle county by B. H. Swales, and in March 

 1904 from Mt. Pleasant, Isabella county, by Mr. Newberry, also from 

 Goodrich, Genesee county by Samuel Spicer. Mr. Thomas B. Wyman of 

 Munising, Alger county, reports that a large flock remained on Grand 

 Island in Lake Superior from January 23 until March 14, 1906. And they 

 have reappeared in some numbers each succeeding winter. During the 

 winter of 1908-1909 they were quite generally reported from the northern 

 parts of the state, and there were a few reports the following winter, but 

 the winter of 1910-1911 brought the largest numbers seen in recent years, 

 for they appeared everywhere in flocks, even in the most southern counties 

 of the state. 



Mr. Amos Butler thus sums up the eastern extension of this species 

 during the last fifty years: "It is not every winter that these birds cross 

 the Mississippi, and it is unusual when we note their wide distribution 

 east of that river. Michigan appears to be more often visited than any other 

 state noted here. As has been observed, its first recorded extension of range 

 east of Lake Su])erior was at Toronto, Ont. in 1854; next it was noted 

 from Ohio in I860; from Ontario again in 1866 and from Michigan in 1869. 

 * * * The first extensive wanderings of the Evening Grosbeak, as far 

 as we know, appear to have occurred in 1871, when they extended south into 

 Illinois and east into Ontario, and in 1879 they were found in localities as 

 far apart as Charles City, Iowa, and Grand Rapids, ]\Iich. In the 

 winter of 1886-87 they were reported from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, 

 Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Ontario. That 

 year they appear to have been most common in the states of Iowa, Indiana 

 59 



