FRINGILLID.E: FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPARROWS. 377 



striking color-contrasts of black, white, and gold, he seems to represent the allegory of diurnal 

 transmutation ; for his sable pinions close around the brightness of his vesture, as night encom- 

 passes the golden hues of sunset, while the clear white space enfolded in these tints foretells 

 the dawn of the morrow. Western U. S., northerly, and adjoining British Provinces, N. to the 

 region of the Saskatchewan, E. regularly to Lake Superior, irregularly to Kansas, Kentucky, 

 Ohio, Outario, Quebec, New York, Pa., and New England ; common in its ordinary range, 

 but somewhat irregularly distributed, especially during its migrations, when it may appear 

 unexpectedly in large roving flocks. In some places it is known as "sugar-bird,'' from its 

 fondness for the maple (Acer saccharinum). A history of the Evening Grosbeak may be read 

 in Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, Apr. 1879, pp. 65-75; and several later articles in the Auk trace its 

 movements and habits in various localities. The nest and eggs remained unknown till those 

 of its western variety were discovered in Yolo Co., Cala., May 10, 1886, as recorded in Bull. 

 Cala. Acad, ii, No. 8, 1887, p. 450. Another nest with eggs, taken June 18, 1896, in El 

 Dorado Co., Cala., is figured in colors in the Nidologist for Sept. 1896. This nest was in a 

 pine tree at a height of 35 feet, in the fork of a limb, substantially built with a foundation of 

 twigs upon which was a neat superstructure of fine rootlets ; it contained 4 eggs, averaging 

 0.92 X 0.G4, light bluish-green, spotted and blotched irregularly with dark brown and black. 

 H. V. mouta'na. (Lat., of mountains.) Western Evening Grosbeak. As noted in the 

 Key, '2d ed., 1884, p. 343, specimens from the Southern Eocky Mts. were said to have the bill 

 less turgid and the yellow frontlet narrow. This was the alleged character of the j^resent sub- 

 species, to which is now ascribed a range in the U. S., from the Rocky Mts. to the Pacific, and 

 8. in Mexico to Orizaba. The alleged distinction does not hold goodj but the 9 averages 

 browner than that of vespertina proper, and is more mixed with yellowish, instead of being 

 plain brownisli-ash or gray on most parts. Hesperiphona vespertina var. montana Bd., 

 Brew., and Ridgw., Hist. N. A. B. i, 1874, p. 449; Coccothraustes vespertina montana 

 Mearns, Auk, July, 1890, p. 246; Coccothraustes {Hesperiphona) vespertinus montanus, 

 A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 514 a. (Not in A. 0. U. List, 1st ed. 1886 ; nor in Eidgv^^., 

 Man. 1887.) 



PINI'COLA. (Lat. pmHS, a pine ; co?e/T, to inhabit, cultivate.) Pine Bullfinches. Bill 

 short, stout, about as high as broad, sides convex in all directions, culmen convex throughout, 

 tip hooked; commissure gently curved throughout, without decided angulation; gouys rela- 

 tively long, rami of under mandible short, former nearly straight, latter coming together in a 

 very broad gentle curve ; commissural edge inflected. Nostrils small, round, basal, concealed 

 by the ruff of antrorse plumules ; nasal fossae short and broad. Wings of moderate length, 

 tipped by 2d-4th quills, 1st and 5th a little shorter; 2d-5th with outer webs incised ; no pecu- 

 liarity of inner quills. Tail little shorter than wings, emarginate, its short coverts scarcely or 

 not reaching half-way to end. Feet small ; tarsus not longer than middle toe without claw, 

 7-scutellate in front, laminiplantar behind, but the outer of these plates commonly subdivided 

 into 3 or 4 below ! Lateral toes short, their claws scarcely surpassing base of middle, outer 

 rather longer tlian inner ; hind toe less in length than inner lateral ; its claw shorter, though 

 stouter and more curved than the middle. Sexes unlike ; (J red, 9 ff''iiy- One species. 

 P. enuolca'tor canadensis. (Lat. enucleator, one who shells out. Fig. 237.) Canadian 

 Pine Grosbeak. Pine Bullfinch. Adult $ : Light carmine or rosy-red, feathers of 

 back with dusky centres; lower belly and under tail-coverts gray, and, in general, the red 

 continuous only in higlily plumaged specimens. Nasal tufts and lores blackish. Wings black- 

 ish ; primaries witli narrow white or rosy edging, inner secondaries more broadly edged with 

 white, ends of greater and middle coverts white or rosy, forming conspicuous wing-bars. Tail 

 like wings, with narrow edgings like those of primaries. Bill blackish, with or without paler 

 base below ; feet blackish. Length about 8.50 ; wing 4.50 or more ; tail 4.00 ; bill 0.55 ; tar- 

 sus 0.90. The plumage of the $ is extremely variable in tint, and some apparently adult indi- 



