FINCHES 



69 



The Black-headed Grosbeak fills the same 

 place in the West that the Rose-breast does in 

 the East, and economically is fully as important. 

 In parts of its range it is destructive to early 

 fruit and attacks also green peas and beans. 

 However, since by proper precautions such losses 

 may be minimized or altogether prevented, they 

 should not be given too much weight in estimat- 

 ing the value of the bird. Instead of being 

 regarded as an enemy by western orchardists, 

 the Black-head should be esteemed as a friend, 

 since it is a foe to the worst pests of horticul- 

 ture — the scale insects — which compose a 

 fourth of its food. The black olive scale alone 

 constitutes a fifth of the bird's subsistence, and 

 the frosted scale and apricot scale, or European 

 fruit lecanium, also are destroyed. In May 

 considerable numbers of canker worms and cod- 

 ling moths are eaten, and almost a sixth of the 

 bird's seasonal food consists of flower beetles. 

 which do incalculable damage to cultivated 

 flowers and to ripe fruit. For each quart of fruit 

 consumed by the Black-headed Grosbeak it de- 

 stroys in actual bulk more than one and one-half 

 quarts of black olive scales, one quart of flower 

 beetles, besides a generous quantity of codling 

 moth pupae and canker worms. So effectively 

 does it fight these pests that the necessity for its 



preservation is obvious 

 to fruit is preventable. 



while most of its iniurv 



R. Bruce Horsfall 

 BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS ( ;. 



BLUE GROSBEAK 

 Guiraca caerulea casrulea ( LiiiiKVus) 



A. I ). U. .N'uml-jcr ^g? See Color Plate 8(> 



Other Name. — Blue Pop. 



General Description. — Length, 734 inches. Male, 

 blue : female, olive-brownish above and brownish-buffy 

 below. Bill, large, conical, compressed, with nearly 

 straight outlines ; wings, long and pointed ; tail, about 

 54 length of wing, nearly even or very slightly rounded. 



Color. — .\dult M.m.e: Uniform, slightly glossy, 

 dull ultramarine blue, the feathers of the back 

 dusky centrally ; a narrow black spot on crown involv- 

 ing the forehead, the extreme front portion of cheek 

 region, and chin; wings and tail, blackish with dull 

 bluish edgings, the middle wing-coverts with most of 

 the exposed portion, chestnut or cinnamon-rufous 

 (forming a broad band), the greater coverts margined 

 at the ends with the same or a paler color (forming a 

 much narrower band), under tail-coverts margined 

 with white, especially at tips ; iris, brown. .'\nui.T 

 Female: Above, olive-brownish tinged with tawny, 

 passing into a decidedly more grayish hue (usually 

 tinged with blue) on rump and upper tail-coverts; 



shoulders darker centrally, forming indistinct streaks; 

 wings and tail, dusky, the latter with dull grayish blue, 

 the former with light brownish edgings ; middle wing- 

 coverts, rather broadly tipped with light cinnamon- 

 rufous or tawny and terminal margins of greater 

 coverts usually tinged with the same ; under parts, 

 brownish-buffy or clay color, deepest on chest, paler on 

 throat and abdomen. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Placed in low brambles, or 

 in deciduous trees as far as thirty feet from the ground; 

 a compact, well built structure of dried grass, plant 

 fibers, leaves, with an intertwined cast-ofif snake skin ; 

 lined with fine brown rootlets and horse-hair. Er.os : 

 3 or 4, plain light bluish white. 



Distribution. — More southern portions of eastern 

 United States, chiefly near Atlantic and Gulf coasts : 

 north regularly, but very locally, to Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, Kentucky, and southern Illinois ; accidentally to 

 Maine, eastern Massachusetts, Province of Quebec ; in 

 winter south to Cuba and Yucatan. 



