MEXICAN EVENING GROSBEAK 255 



drinking. Here also were crossbills, pine siskins, and red-breasted nuthatches, 

 all birds of the northwood country, Canadian birds isolated on this sky island. 

 We saw the first robins we had encountered in weeks and the first creepers since 

 we left the eastern mountains." 



W. E. D. Scott (1885) describes the grosbeaks as "not at all shy," 

 while H. S. Swarth (1904) found them "very wdld." 



Voice. — Willard (1910) in watching a pair engaged in nest-building 

 has this to say about their notes: "The male followed her all the time 

 and 'talkt' to her. When percht he used the loud call note, a single 

 very loud staccato note which I am unable to describe. When in 

 flight the soft note was used. Reduced to syllables it sounded like 

 'Chewey, ch6wey, chewey' with the accent on the fii'st syllable." 



Enemies. — H. Brandt (1951) tells us: "Old Jim Tomlinson lived 

 alone in the last cabin up Miller Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains. 

 He stated that he liked the Cooper Hawk very much, because it kept 

 birds away from his fruit trees, especially the Mexican Evening Gros- 

 beaks, which liked to pick the seeds out of apples growing in his small 

 canyon orchard." So it is all in the point of view! 



Two evening grosbeaks from the Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 

 were found to be infected by the blood parasites Typanosoma and 

 Leucocytozoon (S. F. Wood and C. M. Herman, 1943). One of the 

 two birds harbored microfilarial worms. 



Fall. — Two evening grosbeaks collected by Harter in the White 

 Mountains, Apache County, Ariz., on July 21, 1933 (L. M. Huey, 

 1936a.) proved to represent two races, H. v. brooksi and H. v. montana. 

 "When dissected neither bird was found to be in breeding condition. 

 As both were in the midst of molting, it would indicate that their 

 nesting period had passed and that they were migrating in search of a 

 better food supply." The discovery of a Mexican evening grosbeak 

 north of its breeding range suggests a postbreeding movement north- 

 ward, noticeable in a number of species. On the other hand Swarth 

 found the species in the Huachucas on July 30 (collection California 

 Acad. Sci.) and, as mentioned above, Kimball found parents with their 

 families in the Chiricahuas in late July. A male was found in the 

 latter mountains on September 28 (Peet collection). 



Winter.— W. E. D. Scott (1885) made "a four days' visit to the 

 highest point of Los Sierras de Santa Catalina" from November 26 to 

 29, 1884. "The region is a dense pine and spruce forest, with here and 

 there a sprinkling of poplars and sycamores, and a few evergreen 

 oaks * * * It was real winter at this altitude — a Httle over 10,000 

 feet — with from two to six inches of snow on the ground." Here he 

 found, besides Cassin's finch and two kinds of j uncos, four evening 

 grosbeaks feeding on the spruce cones. 



