200 PINE-OROSBEAK. 



To Denmark the Pine-Grosbeak is only a rare winter-visitor, and 

 its occurrences, even in the suitable conifer woods of North-eastern 

 Germany, Silesia, and Poland, are irregular. Accepting the records 

 without criticism, the bird has strayed at long intervals to Holland, 

 Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Southern Germany ; while, prob- 

 ably following the line of the mountain pine-woods, a solitary example 

 appears to have crossed the Alps to the Trentino in the winter of 

 1876. Its home is principally in the conifer region near the Arctic 

 circle ; but sometimes, as at Pulmak in Lapland, it extends to the 

 birch woods as far as 70° N. lat. ; while eastward, the bird is plenti- 

 ful in Northern Russia, across Siberia to Kamchatka, and as far south 

 as Lake Baikal ; as a straggler it has also been obtained in the Kuril 

 islands, to the north of Japan. In America it occurs throughout 

 the Arctic and sub-Arctic forests, migrating southward in winter to 

 California, Colorado and the northern portions of the Eastern States. 



For the first knowledge of the nesting and eggs of the Pine- 

 Grosbeak, we are indebted — as in many other cases — to the 

 researches of the late John Wolley, who discovered the breeding- 

 haunts of this bird in Lapland. The nest, similar to that of the 

 Bullfinch, consists externally of interlaced birch-twigs, with a lining 

 of fine stiff grass, and is usually placed on the horizontal branches of 

 a fir or a birch-tree, near the bole. The 4 eggs are deep greenish- 

 blue, spotted with brownish-purple : measurements i in. by 72 in. 

 The food consists partly of insects, but mainly of buds, birch-catkins, 

 seeds and various berries. The song has been described as loud and 

 flute-like ; the flight is undulating. 



The adult male has the feathers of the head, back and rump 

 suffused with rich rose-red, upon a ground-colour of slate-grey ; 

 wings ash-brown, with broad pinkish-white tips to both sets of wing- 

 coverts, and white margins to the secondaries ; tail dusky-brown ; 

 under parts rose-red, turning to grey on the flanks and vent ; bill 

 dark brown, paler at the base of the lower mandible ; legs blackish- 

 brown. Length 8'25 in. ; wing 4*25 in. In the female the rose tint 

 is replaced by a more or less golden-yellow, except on the back, which 

 is slate-grey. The young have a greyish-green tinge. The late Mr. 

 A. C. Chapman found a pair of birds breeding in this greyish-green 

 plumage, the male having rather more of the yellow colour than the 

 female ; another nest belonged to a couple of greyish-green birds ; 

 while at a third nest a male in full rosy plumage was paired with an 

 ash-grey female. 



Many authors have accepted the genus Piiiicola of A^ieillot for this 

 species. 



