153 



breasted Grosbeaks in a swamp on the Millstone River, 

 near Princeton. At the time of discovery the female 

 was sitting, and presumably brooding new-laid eggs. 

 She was not disturbed, but as I did not know when 

 incubation had commenced, the locality was visited 

 and observations were made at intervals of every other 

 day, until on the 14th of the month I was assured that 

 the young had been hatched. I was not then aware 

 of the number of fledglings composing the brood. It 

 seems worth}^ of record here that both parents took 

 part in incubation, though the male only assumed such 

 duty for brief periods, when the hen bird went away, 

 probably for exercise and bathing, but not in quest of 

 food. The male constantly fed the female and was 

 solicitous in his care for her. 



On the 14th of the month the young were hatched, 

 and the parents shared the duties of brooding as they 

 had shared the period of incubation. On the 19th of 

 the month, concluding that the young were old enough 

 for the experiment in view, I secured the nest, in 

 which was a brood of three fledglings, and at once 

 had a water-color sketch made of the young in the 

 nest, as a record of their absolute condition, so far as 

 feathering and appearance were concerned. While 

 not able to discriminate with certainty the differen- 

 tation in sex, I was reasonably sure from the first that 

 the brood contained two young male birds and one 

 female. 



On the 20th another accurate water-color sketch 

 was made to record how these birds had grown and 

 developed, and on the 21st a sketch of one of the 

 birds, a male (for by this time the sexes were easily 

 distinquishable) records his appearance from both a 

 front and a back view. 



These birds were carefully hand reared in the nest, 

 which they left on the twenty-first inst., when about 

 seven days old. Grosbeaks of this kind are very pre- 



