210 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 i'abt i 



male apparently had lost interest. On April 211 saw a female jerk- 

 ing up and down in somewhat the same way a flicker does during 

 courtship. She seemed to be pursuing the male, or at least she moved 

 toward him, but he disregarded her, dropped to a lower branch, 

 and turned his back to her. 



While observing two pairs at a salt lick by Clear Lake, Haliburton 

 County, Ontario, on June 1, 1945, I noted that the females were as 

 combative as the males, spreading their wings, jerking from side to 

 side, and cHnching bills. During one duel the two females rose 

 into the air as fighting male robins sometimes do. 



On May 2, 1949, in Iron County, Mich., among a loosely scattered 

 flock in the crown foliage of tall sugar maples at noon I watched 

 (Speirs, 1949) a male in courtship display: 



"The pair were about 40 feet up in a maple, the male about a foot 

 above the female on another branch. Suddenly he threw back his 

 head, lowered the yellow rump, raised and fanned his black tail and 

 commenced vibrating his black and white wings so fast that they 

 looked transparent as a hummingbird's. He then glided along the 

 branch above her as swiftly as a geisha, but with his back in the form 

 of a U. The female did not look at all impressed, flew to a tree 

 eastward, followed by her swain." 



Elizabeth Holt Downs (1958) has given a full account of the court- 

 ship as she observed it on Glebe Mountain, South Londonderry, Vt., 

 in the spring of 1956. She writes: 



During the first part of April the grosbeaks began "chasing" each other and on 

 April 18th I witnessed the first courtship feeding. * * * the female initiated this 

 first feeding by "flirting" her tail (a quick spreading and closing of the tail), 

 bobbing her head and swinging her body slightly in front of the male. Some 

 males do not respond at first to this invitation but in this instance the male fed the 

 female sugar maple buds. Within a few days courtship feeding was a daily 

 occurrence. On one occasion I watched a male grosbeak go through all the 

 motions of feeding a female but without any food to give her. * * * 



Beginning with 1953 I have been able to observe much of the courtship behavior 

 of the Evening Grosbeaks every year. Their courtship seems to follow a certain 

 pattern with possibly some slight variations. It is initiated by the female asking 

 to be fed. The first food she receives from the male is tree buds; later she is fed 

 salt-impregnated earth and still later (after pair formation has taken place) the 

 female is fed sunflower and tree seeds. After pair formation has occurred, more 

 often than not it is the male who takes the initiative and offers the seeds to the 

 female. At this time when the female accepts the food (or asks for it) she assumes 

 a posture similar to that of the young begging to be fed (crest raised, body crouched 

 slightly and wings fluttering). Some females swing their bodies from side to 

 side and occasionally a female will "cry." But sometimes the feeding is 

 accompanied by very little display by the female. 



"Dancing" by the males usually begins shortly after the initial courtship 

 feeding and before pair formation has taken place. When dancing, the male 

 grosbeak faces the female. With crest raised, bill and tail pointed upwards, 



