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Bird - Lore 



out sunflower seed, and not a winter since 

 then has gone by without some Evening 

 Grosbeaks being at my feeding-station. They 

 come from the middle of October to early 

 November, except one year, when they were 

 here only in February, and stayed until the 

 end of May, the flock varying from thirty to 

 seventy. 



It seems to me the above indicates that 

 they are more than an 'irregular winter 

 visitor.' 



As Sault Ste. Marie has the honor of being 

 the location from which the Evening Gros- 

 beak was first made known to science, it 

 can now claim to be one of the first places to 

 report the presence of these birds east of the 

 Mississippi River in summer and undoubt- 

 edly nesting. 



Dr. K. Christofferson, my partner in 

 bird-work, visited Munising Junction, about 

 115 miles west of Sault Ste. Marie, on May 

 23, 1920, and found Evening Grosbeaks there. 

 He again visited the Junction September 

 6 and 7, October 3, 24, and 25, 1920, and 

 found the birds present. The station agent 

 told him they had been there all summer. 

 The Doctor arranged with the agent to keep 

 track of the birds. June 1, 1921, he again 

 saw the birds at the Junction and the agent 

 reported they had been there all winter. 

 When he visited the Junction, on October 

 28, 1921, the Grosbeaks were there as before 

 and the agent reported they had been around 

 all summer. 



In June, 1921, we heard that a flock of 

 Evening Grosbeaks was at Hulbert, about 

 forty miles west of Sault Ste. Marie. July 

 17, we spent an hour and a half at Hulbert, 

 between trains. We did not see any of the 

 Grosbeaks but several people reported to us 

 that they had been feeding along the rail- 

 road at the station that morning, had been 

 there all summer and the previous winter. 

 Up to the middle of August the birds were 

 reported still there. 



August 24, Evening Grosbeaks came to 

 my feeding-station and have been here every 

 day since then, the flock numbering about 

 thirty. 



Heretofore (the Grosbeaks coming in from 

 the middle of October to early in November), 

 I have found nothing but full-plumaged 



males and females. This year there were a 

 number of young, two very immature, hardly 

 able to fly and still having some pin-feathers. 

 One young male showed only the black and 

 white on the wings and the yellow forehead 

 and stripe over eye of the male, the remainder 

 of the plumage being as in the female. Three 

 young males showed very little of the dusky 

 olive above, and the throat and breast were 

 uniformly a light bright yellow which, in a 

 perfect light, showed a few faint vertical 

 dusky streaks. 



The females varied from birds showing 

 practically no dark lines at the sides of 

 throat to the usual dark lines of the adult 

 female. Four of the birds showing little, if 

 any, dark lines at the sides of throat, had 

 most of the usual white spots on the wings, 

 but only the lower third to half of the pri- 

 maries black, with no black whatever on the 

 secondaries. 



All the birds now seem to be in adult 

 plumage, although some males show more 

 dusky olive above and below than others, and 

 the females vary almost individually in the 

 size and shape of their white wing-markings. 



I examined practically all the birds while 

 they were feeding from a tray at my dining- 

 room window, with only the glass between. 

 If these birds follow the usual custom they 

 will be here until the last of May. Late in the 

 winter or early spring I hope to place bands 

 on them all. — M. J. Magee, Sault Sic. 

 Marie, Mich., Dec. 9, 1921. 



Redpoll in Georgia 



On yesterday, February 5, 1922, I added 

 the Redpoll (Acanthis linaria linaria) to my 

 list of Georgia birds. There was a small flock 

 of these birds in my back yard on the out- 

 skirts of the city, and I had the opportunity 

 of observing two of them at cfose range. I 

 presume that the extreme cold weather in the 

 north for the last few weeks drove them this 

 far south. — Earle R. Greene, 108 Orme 

 Circle, Allanla, Ga. 



An Ontario Mockingbird 



The most interesting ornithological oc- 

 currence observed by bird students of this 

 region in many years was a recent visit from 



