CANADIAN PINE GROSBEAK 327 



also present. From the eminence of a raspberry cane 6 inches above 

 the female the male reached down toward her and offered something 

 large and white which she accepted. The male then glanced upward, 

 and both birds flitted their tails. The female then ate a few shriveled 

 raspberry seeds that were still clinging to the cane and twice dm-ing 

 the process reached up and pecked her mate under the tail. Both 

 birds then flew off with bouncing flight. 



Nesting. — MacFarlane (1891) reported a nest in northern Mac- 

 kensie, of which he says: "In the spring of 1861 an Indian discovered 

 a nest of this species on a pine tree some 60 miles south of Fort 

 Anderson, but unfortunately while descending therewith he fell and 

 destroyed both nest and eggs; and although we frequently observed 

 some birds at the post and elsewhere, we never succeeded in finding 

 another nest." In another publication (1908) he refers to this same 

 nest as being "in a spruce tree," which seems more likely. 



James Bond writes to me of a nest found by Edward Finkel near 

 Mount Lewis on the Gaspe Peninsula on July 17, 1946. He says 

 that "it was in the crotch of a low shrub, about 2 feet above the 

 ground and that the trunk was about 2 inches in diameter." It 

 contained two small young. Harry B. Goldstein, a member of the 

 party, v/rites to me that the nest "was compactly built; its founda- 

 tion was composed of small twigs and roots; the interior was made 

 up of very fine rootlets, fine bits of grasses and lichens." 



Harold F. Tufts (1910) gives an interesting account of the finding 

 of a nest of the pine grosbeak near Shelburne, Nova Scotia, on June 

 10, 1910: "The wood road which I was following led through a large 

 area of wet bog or mossy swamp, rather thickly overgrown with 

 stunted spruce and hackmatack and scattered bunches of swamp maple 

 and laurel bushes." By following up a singing male he found the 

 mate and followed her: 



Following the course taken by the female as nearly as I could, I searched care- 

 fully among the densely branched spruces for a nest. After nearly an hour of 

 plunging through the bog, knee deep in water and slime, till darkness was setting 

 in and failure seemed certain, finally I noted a dark mass some fifteen feet up in 

 a slender young spruce, close to its top. Giving the tree a slight tap with my 

 hand the bird flew off and I was delighted to recognize the female Pine Grosbeak 

 as she fluttered about close at hand. 



The nest, a rather bulky sprawling affair of twigs and grasses, resembled some- 

 what in both situation and general make-up that of the Blue Jay. The three 

 eggs were rather advanced in incubation, containing young well formed — but 

 with the use of caustic potash the shells were properly emptied. 



Positive evidence of nesting in Maine was furnished by Miss 

 Marie Kaizer Maddox, who wrote to Ora W. Knight (1908) as follows: 

 "Four years ago in the month of May I found a Phie Grosbeak's nest 

 about seven mUes north of Jackman, near a sporting camp at Hale 



