58 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pabt i 



Lusk, October 6. Colorado — Grand Junction, October 2. New 

 Mexico — Los Almos, September 29 (median of 9 years, September 13). 

 South Dakota — White River, September 2. Nebraska — Red Cloud, 

 September 25. Kansas — September 18 (median of 5 years, Sep- 

 tember 2). Oklahoma — Kenton, September 24. Texas — Somerset 

 and San Antonio, September 27. Missouri — Jefferson County, 

 September 22. Massachusetts — Martha's Vineyard, November 11. 

 New York — Oak Island, October 20. New Jersey — Island Beach, 

 November 2. South Carolina — October 15. Alabama — ^Montgom- 

 ery, October 4. Florida — ^Miami, November 26; northern peninsula, 

 October 26. 



Egg dates. — ^Arizona: 16 records. May 20 to June 21; 10 records, 

 May 27 to June 7. 



Colorado: 22 records, May 21 to July 17 ; 13 records, June 2 to June 12. 



PHEUGTICUS MELANOCEPHALUS MACULATUS (Audubon) 



Black-headed Grosbeak 

 plates 5 and 6 



Habits 



From the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 

 coast the handsome black-headed grosbeak replaces our familiar 

 rose-breasted grosbeak of the eastern States. It is not quite as showy 

 as the eastern bird, but it is richly colored, the brownish orange of the 

 under parts contrasting weU with the black head and the black and 

 white of the wings and tail. The western race, the subject of this 

 sketch, breeds from southern British Columbia through California to 

 northern Lower California and western Mexico. 



One should look for the black-headed grosbeak in situations 

 similar to those in which one could expect to find the eastern rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, in thickets of bushes, small trees or wiUows 

 which grow along streams, around the edges of swamps, ponds, or 

 damp places, as well as on the edges of open woods, where the sunlight 

 filters down through the foliage, but almost always not far from 

 water or low ground. S, F. Rathbun says in his notes: "On more than 

 one occasion, when in a forest where no sign of any break was seen, 

 we perhaps would hear from far away the clear song of this grosbeak; 

 and then we knew that in the direction whence it came would be found 

 some more or less open spot, possibly bordered by a bit of water or a 

 stream. And other somewhat favored spots are about the borders 

 of the forest that have a mixture of deciduous growth." 



