The Black-Headed Gr Osbe3.\i.(Zamelodiamelanocephala) 



By William L. Finley 



Length: About 8^4 inches. 



Range : Breeds from the Pacific coast to Nebraska and the Dakotas, and 

 from southern Canada to southern Mexico ; winters in Mexico. 



The black-headed grosbeak is one of the birds of my childhood. As long 

 ago as I can remember, I saw him in the mulberry and the elder trees about my 

 home when the fruit was ripe. I did not know his name, but I knew him by his 

 tl\^ bill, his bright colors and his high-keyed call-note. One has little trouble 

 irt'lJfStting acquainted with a bird of such marked individuality. The black head, 

 the red-brown on the breast brightening to lemon-yellow below and under the 

 wings, the black tail and wings with two white wing-bars, are distinctive of the 

 male. The female is more demurely dressed in dark brown and buff. But the 

 garments are not the only distinctive features of the black-headed grosbeak. 



For several summers, I watched a pair of grosbeaks that lived in a clump 

 of vine-maples on the hillside. The same pair, no doubt, returned to the thicket 

 for several years. 



One day I stopped to look for a bird that was caroling in one of the maples. 

 I saw the grosbeak mother singing her lullaby as she sat on her eggs. It looked 

 to me so like a human mother's love. Few birds sing in the home. However 

 much they wish to, they are afraid. As John Burroughs says, it is a very rare 

 occurrence for a bird to sing while on its nest. But several times I have heard 

 the black-headed grosbeak do it. How the grosbeak took up such a custom, 

 I do not know, for birds in general are very shy about attracting attention to 

 the nest. 



As a rule, he builds a loosely constructed nest of twigs, lined with fine roots. 

 In the northern states, the nests are built in dogwoods, vine-maples and alders ; 

 while, in the south, the bird often nests in chaparral, willows and other trees. 

 The eggs are three and four in number, and are pale blue thickly spotted with 

 brown. 



The black-headed grosbeak has a rollicking song, like that of the western 

 robin and western tanager. I have, at times, found it difficult to distinguish the 

 song of the grosbeak and that of the tanager. The black-headed grosbeak is 

 brilliant both in dress and song. I loved to watch the male that lived in the 

 clump of maples. He used to perch at the very top of a fir sapling near the nest, 

 to stretch his wings and preen his tail, as if he knew his clothes were made for 

 show. Early in the morning ke showed the (|uality of his singing; later in the 

 day it often lacked finish. The tones sounded hard to get out, as if he were 

 practising, — just running over the notes of an air that hung dim in his memory. 

 But it was pleasing to hear his practice. The atmosphere was too lazy for per- 

 fect execution. 



We had a good chance to study and photograph a pair of black-headed gros- 

 beaks that nested near my home. We were soon on such intimate terms with 



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