WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK 239 



In late May 1953, when I was on the university campus at Cor- 

 vallis, Oreg,, a flock of over 100 grosbeaks were feeding on the elm 

 seeds scattered over the gi-ound, or calling from a walnut orchard. 

 Their voices made a continuous din which the students seemed not 

 to notice, apparently taking their noisy visitors for granted. The 

 birds, on their part, took the students for granted, and fed uncon- 

 cernedly on the grass almost under the students' feet. 



Nesting. — The evening grosbeak has a remarkable genius for keep- 

 ing its nesting locations hidden from the eyes and ears of eager orni- 

 thologists, from nidologists, oologists, photographers, campers and 

 hikers. Considering the comparative abundance of the species, 

 nesting records are relatively scarce. In the breeding range of the 

 western evening grosbeak, to date the States of Idaho, Oregon, 

 Washington, and Wyoming have yet to report a single record of 

 a nest, despite convincing evidence that the birds do breed in each 

 of these States. 



It took me 8 years to locate one nest of this elusive species (Speirs 

 and Speirs, 1947), but during the quest a number of nests of the 

 western race were reported to me and permission granted to use 

 these data as desired. They include the first actual nesting records 

 for British Columbia, Nevada, and Utah. 



John Swinburne (1888) found the first reported nest of this sub- 

 species in a thickly wooded canyon in the "intergrade region" of the 

 White Mountains about 15 miles west of the little town of Springer- 

 ville, Apache County, Ariz. He writes: "The nest was a compar- 

 atively slight structure, rather flat in shape, composed of small sticks 

 and roots, lined with finer portions of the latter. * * * The nest 

 was placed about fifteen feet from the ground in the extreme top of 

 a thick willow bush. The slight canon, with a few willow bushes in 

 its centre bordering a small stream, lies in the midst of very dense 

 pine timber at an altitude of about 7,000 feet, as far as I can judge." 

 He climbed up to the nest and found that it contained three eggs. 



Hemy J. M. Barnett of Toronto discovered a nest of the western 

 evening grosbeak on the ridge above Burrard Inlet, West Vancouver, 

 British Columbia, on July 25, 1938. He writes me as follows: "I was 

 up in some second growth timber at the top of 12th Street, on the side 

 of HoUyburn Kidge. Most of the trees were deciduous trees (ash, 

 etc.), but just a short distance higher up they were replaced by firs. 

 There was a robin-sized nest about 18 feet up in one of these ash trees, 

 about 10 feet from the top of the tree. On the edge of the nest, 

 not exactly sitting on it, was a female evening grosbeak. It was 

 impossible to get at the nest itself due to the position at the top of a 

 very small tree. There was a noise in the nest as if there were three 

 or four young there. It was almost dark and no further observations 



