154 



Gocious, and being admirable climbers, they clamber 

 about long before the}^ are able to fly, on the limbs 

 and tangle of vines which generally surround the 

 nest. 



It seems improbable that during the first four 

 days of their lives these birds acquired much 

 appreciation of the song of the male parent, though 

 he was constantly singing close at hand. 



The three young birds were successfully reared, 

 and are alive at the present writing. The brood con- 

 sisted, as I had anticipated from the first, of two males 

 and one female. The birds were kept together for the 

 first six or seven months of their lives, in a large 

 cage, and as I had no other male Grosbeak in my 

 laboratory, it w^is, of course, quite impossible that 

 they should have learned anything of the method of 

 song of tlieir ancestors, except such impressions as 

 may have beem gathered during the first four days of 

 their lives. All of them went through the regular 

 moult, and assumed by September the characteristic 

 dress of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at that season of the 

 year. In October the two young males both developed 

 a change in appearance which progressed slowly until 

 near Christmas-time, when they began to appear like 

 adult male Grosbeaks in full spring plumage. I was 

 not a little chagrined that during September and 

 October they showed a disposition to quarrel and 

 harass one another, so that many of the feathers of 

 the tail were broken and ragged, and the birds pre- 

 sented a rather worn and torn plumage. My 

 experience has been that, with most passerine birds, 

 the primary quills and the feathers of the tail are 

 retained for the entire first year without change. I 

 had, however, discovered that young Baltimore 

 Orioles moulted the rectrices during the months of 

 January and February, and was, therefore, prepared 

 for a similar moult in these Grosbeaks, for I find that 



