222 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



The budding of the maple trees and subsequent shedding of the bud scales as 

 winter was on the way out, provided a plentiful supply of food for the Evening 

 Grosbeaks who seemed to be very fond of this vegetal matter. * * * 



As spring advanced, the feeding habits of the Evening Grosbeaks underwent, 

 by necessity, a change. No longer did the bud scales of maple trees cover the 

 ground as they had been cleaned up methodically in one area after another, and 

 therefore less frequently were the birds seen on the ground. They now fed on 

 the fresh seed pods of the maple trees, and most of their time was spent in the 

 in the trees. * * * 



With respect to the most often referred to favorite food of the Evening Grosbeak, 

 the seed of the box elder tree, the latter was non-existent in this community. 

 * * * the writer observed them feeding on the seeds of mimosa and locust trees, 

 on the hulls embedding the blossoms of the catawba tree and on the buds or bud 

 scales of elm trees, all in addition to their most abundant food in the locality, 

 the bud scales and seeds of the maple tree. 



While south in the spring of 1952, we were surprised to come upon 

 a little flock of evening grosbeaks at Windsor, N.C., on April 30. 

 At first we saw the birds on green lawns eating maple seeds. Then 

 we saw several feeding in and under a pecan tree decorated with green 

 catkins, which they seemed to be eating. At Yorktown, Va., the 

 next day, we found several in a huge chinaberry tree and heard the 

 cracking sound as they lived up to their name of "berry-breaker." 



B. R. Chamberlain (1952) quotes from a letter written by J. W. E, 

 Joyner from Rocky Mount, N.C., which tells of their eating conifer 

 seeds during the 1952 grosbeak invasion: ''When the birds first came 

 here they were never far from the pines, the seeds of which were 

 apparently their chief food. Some seed from tuHp poplars were also 

 eaten. * * * In gleaning seeds from the pine cones they deliberately 

 and slowly plucked the seed out, the discarded wings floating, rather 

 than swirling, downward. For the past month they have continued 

 to feed on pine mast but have also been seen eating ehn, maple, and 

 oak buds. They have become regular visitors to feeding trays, 

 consuming quantities of sunflower seeds; the seeds going in one side 

 and the hulls drooling out of the other." 



O. A. Stevens, of Fargo, N. Dak., wrote Mr. Bent: "We usually 

 find them feeding on fruits of Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) ." 

 In February 1929, T. M. Shortt saw evening grosbeaks eating the 

 seeds of the buft'aloberry, {Shepherdia argentea), at St. James, a 

 suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The meaty fruit has a stone in the 

 center, and Shortt told me the birds were biting the meat off the 

 sides of the stones. Richard J. Eaton wrote Wendell Taber, that he 

 had "seen these birds worldng on hybrid crabapples {Malus sp. ?) 

 much after the fashion of cedar waxwings, pine grosbeaks, and 

 robins." Fr^re Marie-Victorin (1935) tells us that in Quebec, the 

 fruits of the red ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) which form in June 

 and persist on the tree during most of the winter, are a preferred 



