168 



G. MELANOCEPHALA, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. 



List of specimens. 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — 4850-2, Bijoux Hills; 5586, Powder River. 

 Later ExjjedHions.— 61685-90, Ogdeu, Utah; 62274, Idaho. 



This interesting western ally and representative of our Eose-breasted 

 Song Grosbeak, is of common and very general occurrence in the ]\Iiddle 

 and Western Provinces of the United States. The easternmost instance 

 is, I believe, that recorded by Mr. Allen, who found the bird in Middle 

 Kansas, breeding, in June. He saw young birds on the 11th, and the 

 eggs of a second brood toward the end of the month. 1 have not 

 observed any references beyond the United States to the northward ; 

 in the other direction the bird appears to extend through Mexico, on 

 the Table-lands. Many reside in that country ; others, obeying the 

 mysterious impulse of migration, enter the United States in April, and 

 become extensively dispersed, as we have just seen, retreating to their 

 warm winter quarters in the fall. In the mountains of Arizona I found 

 it to be an abundant summer resident from the beginning of May until 

 the end of September. It appeared to shun the pine woods, preferring 

 ravines wooded with deciduous trees and upgrown to shrubbery, as 

 well as the thick willow-copses that fringe the mountain streams. Like 

 others of the same beautiful genus, it is a brilliant and enthusiastic 

 vocalist, its song resembling that of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and 

 having much similarity to that of the Baltimore Oriole. As I have 

 elsewhere remarked, its ordinary chirp, or call-note, strikingly resembles 

 that of Gambel's Plumed Quail — so closely, indeed, that I never could. 

 tell which of the two I was about to see, both species often being found 

 together in the creek bottoms. It feeds at times extensively upon wil- 

 low buds, and similar soft, succulent vegetable matter; also upon seeds 

 and berries, in their season, and upon various insects. Mr. Allen has 

 noted its fondness for peas, causing it to be ungraciously regarded by 

 the agriculturists of Utah. 



According to Dr. Cooper, a nest "found May 12, at the eastern base of 

 the Coast Eange, was built on a low, horizontal branch of an alder, 

 consisting of a few sticks and weeds, very loosely put together, and 

 with a lining of roots and grasses. The eggs were only three, pale 

 bluish-white, tliickly spotted with brown, densely so near the large end; 

 size, 0.95 by 0.70." Dr. Heermaun's account of the niditication is sub- 

 stantially correspondent, except as to the situation of the nest, which, 

 he says, is "formed with little care of twigs very loosely thrown to- 

 gether, and lined with roots ; it is placed on the branches of a bush. The 

 eggs, four in number, are greenish-blue, marked with irregular spots 

 of umber-brown, varying in intensity of shade." In nearly a dozen 

 specimens, I can find no reliable differences from the egg of the Eose- 

 breasted Grosbeak. 



During Mr. Allen's western reconnoisauce, the species was first met 

 with at Fort Hays, and afterward at various localities near the foot- 

 hills of the Eocky Mountains, and in tbe valleys, u[) to about 8,000 feet. 

 Its song and breeding habits, according to his observations, agree with 

 those of the Eose breasted Grosbeak, and the nidification is very simi- 

 lar. Mr. Merriam, who found the species to be quite numerous among 

 the scrub-oaks at the foot of the Wahsatch Mountains, obtained a nest 

 on the -J2d of July, in Teton Basin. Idado. "It was on a cottonwood 



