FINCHES 



67 



description because of their extraordinary 

 beauty. The Rose-breast is a handsome bird in 

 his black and white and rose, much handsomer 

 than most Finches, but not so beautiful as to 

 distract the observer from the life and habits of 

 the bird. And this, the character of the bird, is 

 the finest thing about him. 



Almost all observers are impressed witli the 

 vital wholesomeness of this Grosbeak. He is 

 seldom nervous and seldom allows trivial things 

 to disturb him. He acts with dignity and yet 

 with a quickness and precision and quiet force- 

 fulness that are almost ideal. As a caged bird 

 he puts up with what he has to and makes the 

 most of what he has. He is a very clean bird. 

 The nest is always clean. Wherever he goes he 

 makes no litter, and whatever he breaks up for 

 food is never scattered, but the remnants remain 

 in small inconspicuous piles. It w^iiuld almost 

 seem as though the bird had a conscience, and 

 knew what it was tn be a gentleman. 



Cardinal-like, the male has a great attachment 

 for his mate while she is at the nest. He has 

 been seen standing a few feet away as though 

 glad to be in her company. Sometimes he will 

 sing for her for a long time in a nearby tree. 

 And someone has said that he has carried potato 

 bugs to feed her on the nest. \Mien the young 

 have left the nest his presence with them i'^ very 

 noticeable. Generally silent during these Ini^y 

 weeks, he seems to be the embodiment of gmid 

 cheer, happier, indeed, it would seem than the 

 scared youngsters that watch his everv action 

 as though only in him could they feel any safeti.' 

 in this blood-thirst\- world. 



Whoever cares to know this really high-class 

 American must go out to his distant haunts. One 

 might happen to see him high up in an elm that 

 shades the highway, or quietly purloining the 

 farmer's crop of potato bugs, or flying sturdily 

 beside a country road " going somewhere," never 

 flying for the sake of flying as do most of the 

 nervous birds. Make a special journey to the 

 wood lot where he lives and spend a morning in 

 his company. You will go home with the feel- 

 ing of having met one of the best types of 

 efficient, resourceful, and virile Americans. 



L. Nelson Nichols. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is held in high 

 esteem because of his habit of preving upon the 

 Colorado potato-bug. At least one-tenth of his 

 food is made up of these potato-eating beetles. 

 He is almost the only bird to feed upon these 

 pests ; he not only eats the adults but also con- 

 sumes the larva" and feeds a great manv to the 



nestlings. Cucumber beetles, canker worms, tent 

 caterpillars, army worms, cutworms, chinch bugs 

 are all greedily sought for. 



The vegetable food of this Grosbeak consists 

 of buds and blossoms of forest trees and seeds. 

 He is accused of injuring orchards by eating the 

 blossoms and the fruit and of eating green peas. 

 He does do both of these things, but the little 

 damage he does in this way is more than off-set 

 by his raids on the potato-bug. Mr. Real ex- 

 amined the stomachs of some Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeak's which liafl been killed in the vcrv act 



Ph..lu b> .^. A. --^u 

 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, HER NEST, AND EGGS 



of eating peas, ile found a few peas, but there 

 were more than enough potato-bugs to pay for 

 all the peas the birds would have been likely to 

 eat for a whole season. The garden where this 

 took place adjoined a small potato field which 

 earlier in the season had been so badly infested 

 with beetles that the vines were completely 

 riddled. Every day the Grosbeaks had visited the 

 field and after the young left the nests they 

 accompanied their parents. The babes stood in 

 a row on the topmost rail of the fence and were 

 fed with the beetles by the old birds. A careful 

 inspection was made a few days later but not a 

 single potato-bug remained ; the birds had saved 

 tlie potatoes. 



