ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 55 



Michigan: 24 records, May 23 to June 30; 15 records, May 28 to 

 June 8. 



Minnesota: 22 records. May 22 to June 25; 12 records. May 27 to 

 June 5. 



New Brunswick: 4 records, June 8 to June 19. 



Ontario: 34 records. May 10 to June 24; 17 records. May 30 to 

 June 8. 



Rhode Island: 29 records, May 23 to June 15; 17 records. May 29 

 to June 6. 



PHEUCTICUS MELANOCEPHALUS MELANOCEPHALUS (Swalnson) 



Rocky Mountain Black-headed Grosbeak 



Habits 



A. J. van Rossem (1932) has shown that the type name, as given 

 above, applies to the Rocky Mountain subspecies and not to the 

 California race. The Rocky Mountain bird is larger than the Cali- 

 fornia form and the postocular stripe is usually absent. 



Swarth (1904) says of its haunts in the Huachuca Mountains of 

 Arizona: "It is rather singidar that though in California this species 

 is most abundant in the willow regions of the low lands, here it is 

 preeminently a bird of the higher mountains, and, even during the 

 migrations, of very rare occiurence in the lower valleys. During the 

 summer it is most abundant in the higher parts of the mountains, 

 seldom breeding below 6000 feet; but soon after the young leave the 

 nest a downward movement is begun, and up to the middle of August 

 these Grosbeaks fairly swarm in some of the lower canyons, young and 

 old gathering together in enormous, though loose and straggling 

 flocks." 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that, in New Mexico, this grosbeak "is 

 characteristically a bird of the Upper Sonoran oak, juniper, and nut 

 pine region, and of the thick cottonwood groves and deciduous trees 

 and bushes along streams." 



In southwestern Saskatchewan, we found at least three pairs of 

 black-headed grosbeaks nesting in the timber along Maple Creek; I 

 collected one male and a set of three eggs; Dr. Bishop and Dr. Dwight, 

 also, collected a pair of these birds and two eggs on another creek in 

 this vicinity. 



The nesting habits, eggs, food, and general behavior of the Rocky 

 Mountain grosbeak are apparently similar to those of the more 

 western subspecies. 



In the timber along Maple Creek, southwestern Saskatchewan, on 

 June 16, 1906, we found a nest of this grosbeak containing two eggs. 



