Notes from Field and Study 



107 



a huge winter Goldfinch; in flight, its 

 largely white wings strongly suggested a 

 Snow Bunting. 



We heard it utter two distinctly differ- 

 ent notes; the first a rather loud and insist- 

 ent monosyllable — perhaps nearer peep 

 than any other — and the second, a pecu- 

 liar little trilling call, not unlike certain 

 notes of the Semipalmated Sandpiper. 



Both as to plumage and notes, this 

 species is very strikingly different from 

 any other Grosbeak, of any age and either 

 sex, in this part of the world. Its whitish 

 beak, the yellowish green tone of its plum- 

 age, the absence of streaks, and the pres- 

 ence of such large areas of white in its 

 wings and tail — not to mention the notes 

 described above — all serve easily to dis- 

 tinguish this bird even from the female 

 and young of the Pine Grosbeak, which, 

 of all our species, most nearly resembles it. 



Such other observations of this species 

 as are made, this winter, thus far east, we 

 hope to see recorded in Bird-Lore. — 

 E. G. and R. E. Robbins, Brookline, Mass. 



Evening Grosbeaks at Poughkeepsie 



On the afternoon of February 17, 1916, 

 I observed seven Evening Grosbeaks feed- 

 ing on locust seeds at our farm just out- 

 side of Poughkeepsie. They returned on 

 the morning of the 20th, when they were 

 also seen by Mr. Allen Frost, Prof. Saun- 

 ders and Prof. Ellen Freeman, both of 

 Vassar College, and Miss S. Dean, a stu- 

 dent, who confirmed my identification. As 

 I believe this is a record for Dutchess 

 County, it seems worth reporting. — 

 George W. Gray, Greenvale, Pough- 

 keepsie, N. Y. 



Evening Grosbeaks in Lexington, Mass. 



Although Evening Grosbeaks may 

 very probably have visited Lexington 

 during the flights of 1889-1890 and 1910- 

 191 1, there was no satisfactory record of 

 the bird for the town until Mr. Francis S. 

 Dane saw a bird near his house on Decem- 

 ber 31, 1915. This bird proved to be a 

 member of a flock of eleven Grosbeaks, all 



in the plumage of the female. For a week 

 or ten days this company remained in 

 the vicinity of where the first bird was 

 seen, the number of individuals varying 

 somewhat; the maximum being eleven. 

 Two fruited box elder trees were the 

 attraction to the locality. So regular were 

 their visits to these trees that observers 

 could rely almost with certainty on finding 

 the birds in one or the other of the trees 

 (they were some two hundred yards apart) 

 at eleven o'clock in the morning. 



At all times, the Grosbeaks showed the 

 fearlessness of man so characteristic of 

 Pine Grosbeaks and the Crossbills, but 

 their tameness was especially noticeable 

 when the flock was busily feeding. The 

 birds then appeared to disregard the pres- 

 ence of a party of observers; we could ap- 

 proach them closely, and see very satis- 

 factorily their method of extracting the 

 seeds. 



The seeds of the box elder grow in pairs 

 on a single stem, each seed having a wing. 

 In the winter, however, the seed in its 

 covering with the attached wing, having 

 broken away from the stem, hangs from it 

 only by a thread. It is an easy matter, 

 therefore, for the Grosbeak to break oil a 

 single seed. Having detached it from the 

 stem (to do this the bird merely leans 

 downward and pulls off the husk and its 

 wing), the Grosbeak cuts through the 

 husk as far as the kernel and allows the 

 wing to drop to the ground; this it does 

 with a fluttering motion suggestive of a 

 small moth. The remainder, the whole 

 kernel and perhaps two-thirds of the 

 husk, the Grosbeak mumbles in his bill, 

 and in an incredibly short time discards 

 from the sides of his beak the more or less 

 macerated remains of the husk. Some of 

 these particles fall to the ground, some 

 cling for a time to the beak. The bird 

 swallows the kernel. Upon examining the 

 wings which the birds had clipped off, it 

 was apparent that the birds had bitten 

 directly over the kernel itself at a point 

 rather nearer the wing than the center of 

 the kernel. But, although by this incision 

 the kernel was exposed, it f was never 

 severed and allowed to fall with the wing. 



