CANADIAN PENE GROSBEAK 329 



especially on breast and sides, with ochraceous, the feather edgings 

 wood-brown." The sexes are ahke. 



The first winter plumage is acquired by a partial postjuvenal molt, 

 beginning early in September and involving the contour plumage 

 and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings nor the tail. He 

 describes this plumage in the young male as follows: "Above, chiefly 

 pale ohve-brown, sometimes with reddish or yellowish tinge veiled 

 with smoke-gray edgings; the crown, auriculars, rump and upper 

 tail coverts ochre to gallstone-yellow, often orange, the feathers 

 dark centrally, usually a sprinkling of brick-red feathers and some- 

 times the yellows completely replaced by red, occasionally carmine. 

 Below, smoke-gray, the breast and throat usually with some red 

 and yellow not very pronounced. 



"Wing coverts tipped with white forming two distinct bands the 

 lesser coverts plumbeous and ochre tinged." 



The first nuptial is "acquu-ed by wear, brightening [the] colors 

 and assuming a golden sheen, this optical effect being due to loss of 

 barbules * * *." 



A complete postnuptial molt occurs in late summer or early fall, 

 producing the well-known pinkish plumage of the adult winter male. 

 Wear again produces the brighter colors seen in the spring. 



Of the plimiages of the female, Dwight says: "In juvenal plumage 

 the sexes are practically indistinguishable. In first winter plumage 

 duller than the corresponding dress of the male; above, ohve brown 

 with smoke-gray edgings, the crown and rump ochre or dull oHve- 

 yellow, entirely smoke-gray below. * * * The adult winter plum- 

 age is similar to male first winter, but duller with only a tinge of 

 red at most on crown, rump or breast," 



Food.— Knight (1908) says that, in Maine, the pine grosbeaks "eat 

 buds of the maple, elm, birch, apple, mountain ash, elder, pear, 

 poplar, willow and other native trees, and the seeds of birch, hackma- 

 tack, pines, fu-, spruce and in general almost any of the grass and 

 weed seeds at a pinch. Their prime choice in the free state is seem- 

 ingly crab-apples, mountain ash fruit, pine seeds and maple buds. 

 My captive birds eagerly ate flies, beetles, angle worms, caterpillars 

 and insects of other kinds." 



Forbush (1929) adds: "Among the fruits eaten are those of the 

 bush or mountain cranberry, barberry, mountain ash or rowan tree, 

 Virginia juniper or red cedar, crabapple, apple, black alder, privet, 

 hawthorn, buckthorn, sumac, Japanese barberry and waxwork 

 {Celastrus scandens). * * * It takes also seeds of roses. It is very 

 fond of sunflower seeds and eats those of hemp, burdock, rag-weed, 

 lamb's quarters and other weeds." 



