ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 37 



Perhaps they find some protection from their natural enemies, and 

 they certamly make dehghtful neighbors for bird lovers. 



Spring. — Some of the early migrants vary considerably in their 

 times of arrival, but there are two colorful summer visitors to our 

 grounds, the Baltimore oriole and the rose-breasted grosbeak, that we 

 look for with considerable confidence fairly early in May. Winsor M. 

 Tyler sends me his impression of the grosbeak's coming as follows: 

 "About midway in the May migration in New England, after many 

 birds have long since returned to their breedmg grounds, when we 

 have listened to the robin's song for weeks, and we have almost come 

 to look for that late comer, the wood pewee with his sweet, solemn 

 song, there comes a new singer to the chorus. It stands out from the 

 others — from the robin's alternating unending repetition and from 

 the tiring reiteration of the red-eyed vireo. It adds a voice of its own 

 to the month of May and a very welcome one. It sings a long phrase 

 with a well-defined form like a pretty little poem, sung in the softest of 

 tones full of delicacy and charm, a voice of syrupy sweetness hke no 

 other bird. It is the rose-breasted grosbeak, pleasing both to eye and 

 ear. 



"A characteristic habit of the male grosbeaks in spring is to take 

 their stand on a roadway and hop about in a small company showing 

 their black and white pattern with the blotch of rose on the breast. 

 I have seen them year after year, always when newly arrived, on the 

 paved streets which surround Lexington common, perhaps half a 

 dozen in full view, silent, but very conspicuous. Later in the year they 

 keep well hidden in the shade trees and resiune their glorious song." 



Courtship. — Tyler contributes the following note: "The courtship 

 of the rose-breasted grosbeak, or its culmination, is a quiet, dignified 

 act. There is none of the hot pursuit of the bobohnk with almost a 

 rape at the end. The two grosbeaks appear truly fond of each other. 

 We see the female bird turn her head upward toward her mate and 

 their beaks come together in a sort of kiss. AU is harmony and peace, 

 a picture of affection and contentment, not uncontrolled passion. They 

 are on a branch of a tree or shrub, perhaps near where their nest will be. 

 Their behavior resembles the love-making of the scarlet tanager 

 under sunilar circumstances, quiet and staid with none of the abandon 

 of the farmyard." 



But there is nothing peaceful in the preliminaries to courtship, when 

 the males often engage in fierce combat, more spectacular, however, 

 than harmful, except for the loss of a few feathers. Sometimes several 

 males may be seen hovering about one female, fighting among them- 

 selves and singing to her at the same time. 



H. Roy Ivor wiites Taber of the unusual courtship behavior of a 

 male which had undertaken the feeding of its young, inasmuch as the 



