WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK 245 



On a late August day in Yosemite Park, Enid Michael (1928) saw 

 evening grosbeaks, young and old, feasting in great numbers on a 

 cherry hedge. "Family groups were scattered from one end of the 

 hedge to the other. These birds seemed to show a preference for 

 the coffee berries, but, as the coffee bushes were few in the hedge, 

 many grosbeaks had to be content with a fill of cherries." 



While in Yosemite on July 30, 1939, I saw a flock of about 20 eve- 

 ning grosbeaks, including two or more young, in an oak grove with a 

 pair of band-tailed pigeons. All were feeding in coffee bushes (cas- 

 cara, Rhamnus purshiana). We saw young grosbeaks being fed and 

 observed especially a fledgling female. First she was fed by a male 

 which we presumed to be her father. Soon a second male approached 

 and popped a berry into her bill. Each time she was given the whole 

 fruit, while the older birds, when feeding, extracted the seeds, dropping 

 the pulp. The ground beneath the coffee bush was littered with seed 

 peelings in amongst the dried oak leaves and bracken. The young 

 bird kept calling a soft double note and, when being fed, leaned forward 

 with vibrating wings and raised crest. 



Plumages. — Allan Brooks (1939) thus describes the plumage of 

 Juvenal evening grosbeaks: 



The following description is from specimens of the Western race, Hesperiphona 

 vespertina brooksi. The body plumage of the Juvenal male is more richly colored 

 than that of the Juvenal female, more suffused with ohve or yellow and generally 

 darker and less gray; there is usually a more pronounced dark malar stripe. But 

 the main difference is in the wing which follows the pattern of the adult male and 

 not that of the female. The wing is black, without the three series of white mark- 

 ings that are found on the primaries and secondaries of females of all ages. But 

 the tertials and outermost secondaries are white as in the adult male, forming a 

 conspicuous patch; the tertials are more or less tinged with brown as in most 

 second-plumaged males and usually have a narrow black inner border; all the feath- 

 ers of this white patch are narrowly edged with primrose yellow. The tail in 

 most individuals is solid black like the adult male's, but some show faint white tips 

 to the inner webs of the outermost rectrices; these do not take the form of the large 

 white spots found in females of all ages. The rump is dull buffy olive and the 

 upper tail-coverts are black, sometimes with buff tips. 



It will be seen that the wings and tail are essentially colored as in the adult male, 

 the five innermost secondary coverts are pale yellow or white, narrowly edged with 

 primrose yellow, forming a patch confluent with that on the tertials and secondar- 

 ies Just as in the adult male and very conspicuous in flight. The bill is dusky olive, 

 abruptly pale green at the extreme base. 



Food. — Observing the feeding habits of a large flock of evening gros- 

 beaks in New Mexico, Herbert Brandt (1951) wrote: 



Even in actions this is an avian object apart, as it moves about among the 

 branches after the manner of a parrot, seeming to prefer reaching down to full ex- 

 tent for its seed food, with legs stretched wide apart; or grasping and crawling 

 about with unhurried deliberation. * * * 



