LAND BIRDS. 469 



common throughout the Upper Peninsula from Marquette eastward to 

 the Sault. Major Boies states that he saw it on Neebish Island in summer 

 feeding on the seeds of the burdock, and Mr. 0. B. Warren states that it 

 is abundant and breeds in Marquette county. It has also been recorded 

 by Dr. Wolcott as breeding at Charlevoix in the summer of 1894, and 

 Hazelwood states that it sometimes nests at Port Huron, although he 

 has not taken the eggs. There is a nesting record for Lansing, a bird having 

 built its nest in an evergreen tree in a dooryard in that city. Dr. Gibbs 

 records a set of two eggs taken in Kalamazoo county in 1870, '71 or '72, 

 but is unable to give other data. In St. Clair county both Mr. Taverner 

 and Mr. Swales say that it is rather scarce and irregular, occurring only 

 as a migrant. Even at Lansing, where it is a regular spring visitor, it 

 comes singly and in small numbers in the spring, but occurs in flocks of a 

 dozen or two in October, when it is frequently found feeding on the seeds 

 of various trees, most often perhaps on those of the hornbeam or blue 

 beech. 



This is a bird of somewhat doubtful utility, since it has a pronounced 

 fondness for the blossom-buds of fruit trees and a small flock will some- 

 times nip off nearly all the fruit buds on a good-sized pear tree in the course 

 of a few visits. On the other hand, it eats a good many injurious insects 

 during the summer and is one of our very best singers, its song resembling 

 that of the Canary, and also to a certain extent that of the Warbling Vireo. 

 It is one of the few species which habitually sing on the wing, and an old 

 male in full plumage, floating slowly in a descending spiral and pouring 

 out a perfect flood of melody, makes one of the most attractive experiences 

 which fall to the lot of the bird lover. The males do not acquire the full 

 plumage until at least two years old and many of the yearlings sing and nest 

 while still in the gray plumage. Specimens intermediate in plumage 

 and song are frequently met with, but most breeding pairs are found to 

 consist of a rosy male and gray female. 



The nest is usually placed in the top of an evergreen tree (often a red 

 cedar or a balsam fir) at a height of twelve to fifty feet, and is compactly 

 built of grasses, roots and usually some hair, and in the writer's experience 

 is deeply hollowed, although other observers describe it as shallow. The 

 eggs are three or four, greenish blue, speckled and sometimes pen-scratched 

 with brown and black. They average .80 by .57 inches. Both nest and 

 eggs closely resemble those of the common Chipping Sparrow, but of course 

 are decidedly larger. 



This is one of the birds which ought to increase in numbers with the 

 settlement and cultivation of the country, but thus far it does not seem 

 to have done so in Michigan; indeed, several correspondents state that the 

 bird is not as common now as formerly. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Clcneral color rosy red, brightest on crown and rump, fadiuj^ to wliitisli 

 on lower breast and belly, but usually tinged with red even there; back and wing-coverts 

 mottled red and brown, owing to brownish centers of the feathers; wings and tail dusky 

 or brownish, the wings usually with two distinct reddish bars formed by tips of middle 

 and greater coverts; bill, feet and iris, brown. 



Adult female: Without any red; upper parts streaked with gray and olive-brown, 

 the latter predominating; under parts whitisli, thickly streaked and spotted with olive- 

 brown; a broad brownish stripe behind the eye, bordered above and below by whitish; 

 wings and tail similar to those of male, but with no reddish edgings, the two wing-bars 



