208 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pabt i 



fine males and a female laid out on my skinning table. This was, I 

 believe, the first record for the species in southeastern Massachusetts. 

 Since then, at infrequent intervals, we have had them here at feeding 

 stations, sometimes in large numbers." 



In his comprehensive study of the summer distribution of the eastern 

 evening grosbeak, James L. Baillie (1940) maps 82 summer records. 

 These form an almost continuous belt on both sides of the international 

 boundary, from southeastern Manitoba to eastern Ontario, and con- 

 centrated mainly in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. He also gives 6 

 summer records for Alberta, 1 for Saskatchewan, 4 for Manitoba and 6 

 for New England. Many of these birds seen or collected in June, 

 July, or August, at least suggest the possibility of breeding. In several 

 cases parents were seen with recently fledged young apparently 

 hatched in the vicinity. Baillie's table gives full references for all the 

 records, which he summarizes as f oUows : 



The more recent and regular occurrences of the species in eastern North America 

 in winter seem to be correlated with an increase of the species in summer and it 

 seems evident that its summer range has been extended eastward by gradual stages 

 during comparatively recent years. * * * Facilitating their eastward extension 

 has been the widespread planting in the east during the past few decases of the box 

 elder {Acer negundo) as a shade tree (Allen, 1919). The seeds of the box elder, 

 which hang on the trees all winter, are preferred by the evening grosbeak to any- 

 thing else, when available, and Taverner (1921) calls the situation a "baited high- 

 way" along which the grosbeaks have been able to pass. 



In the 25 years since the publication of Baillie's paper, the grosbeaks 

 have continued to extend their range eastward. They have now been 

 reported from Newfoundland in winter and from eastern Quebec, New 

 Brunswick, and Nova Scotia in summer. It is probably only a ques- 

 tion of time before their breeding in the easternmost Maritime Prov- 

 inces and Newfoundland is reported. 



Spring. — "When the snow is heavy the birds congregate at feeding 

 stations," writes Christopher M. Packard (MS.). "When it thaws, 

 and the ground and seeds begin to appear again, their attendance 

 at feeders drops noticeably, doubtless because the birds can now 

 find enough natural food. They can once again revert to the maple 

 stands and rummage around through the soggy leaves in search of 

 seeds fallen the autumn before. With the advent of warmer weather, 

 two new sources of food becomes available, the new tender buds and 

 the maple sap, of which they are particularly fond." 



At North Bay, Ontario, the grosbeaks arrived early one winter at 

 the western edge of the town. Day by day they visited various box 

 elder or Manitoba maple trees (Acer negundo) and in a kind of micro- 

 migration moved eastward across the town untU, by the time the 

 snows melted, they had reached its eastern limits. On a March day in 

 1945 we watched a small flock feeding in a Manitoba maple. The 



