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Bird - Lore 



spruce whose tapering top was aglow 

 with the last warm lights of a dying day. — 

 W. H. Bergtold, M. D., Denver, Colo. 



The Evening Grosbeak in Central 

 Minnesota 



Noticing the very interesting article 

 by my friend A. A. Allen, of Ithaca, in 

 the November-December, 1914, Bird- 

 Lore, it occurred to me that my observa- 

 tions on a large flock of Evening Gros- 

 beaks during the winter of 1913-14 might 

 be of value to bird students. A flock of 

 about forty arrived in Eagle Bend about 

 the middle of October, 1913, and all 

 winter were a source of inquiry and 

 observation to many of our citizens as they 

 fed upon the box-elder, ash, and other 

 seeds of the trees in our town. As usual, 

 they were very tame, but very few of 

 them were killed, as wanton destruction 

 of our birds is a thing of the past in our 

 neighborhood. 



As the Evening Grosbeak is not a rarity 

 here in the winter time, if one looks for 

 them, my interest in them was mainly 

 sustained because of the size of the flock. 

 They remained unusually late in the 

 spring. By referring to our School Chart 

 of Spring Birds for 1914, I notice that my 

 red-letter day came on April 12. It was a 

 warm, sunshiny morning, and I was on 

 my usual trip looking for spring arrivals. 

 Entering a low but rather open piece of 

 forest along our creek, I was listening to 

 the sweet song of a flock of PurpleFinches 

 that had arrived during the night. All at 

 once several loud and rather melodious 

 notes struck my ear and, astonished, I 

 stopped. The bird did the same, but in a 

 few moments sang again his broken song. 

 By this time I had spied him. A beauti- 

 ful male Evening Grosbeak. Another 

 male was near him, and may possibly 

 have been the first bird that sang. The 

 song was much louder, but sadly lacked 

 the sweetness of our Rose-breasted Gros- 

 beak. I watched them for some time, 

 but the performance was over. I had 

 hoped that they would nest with us, and 

 a male was seen twice later in the season. 



The last observation was on May 3, by 

 one of my students. It seemed late in the 

 season to leave for the Canadian Rockies, 

 but the last straggler left this locality at 

 least about that time. They had been 

 with us over six months. — -J. P. Jensen, 

 Eagle Bend, Minn. 



Smith's Longspur in Iowa 



On the afternoon of July 29, 1915, I was 

 walking along one of our country roads, 

 two miles south of Osage, Iowa, when a 

 very sweet warbling chatter came from a 

 hundred bird throats over in an oat field 

 at my right. I stopped to look and listen, 

 when, with a whirring of wings, they flew 

 over my head into another field on the 

 left side of the road, at least a dozen 

 individuals lit on the fence and in the 

 bushes, and gave me a chance to study 

 their markings at close range. In order to 

 satisfy any critics, I give the notes I made 

 at that time, 'Bill like a Finch's; back, 

 brown; tail, forked; lesser primaries 

 black; head striped like a female White- 

 throated Sparrow; breast yellowish buff; 

 size of bird a little larger than an English 

 Sparrow.' 



Since my experience, I have found three 

 other persons who saw the same flock, in 

 about the same locality, and their descrip- 

 tion tallies with mine, and also gives me 

 two other dates for the bird, which I 

 believe were Smith's Longspurs. — F. May 

 TuTTLE, President Osage Naturalist Club. 



Chestnut-sided Warbler Nesting 

 near Baltimore 



From July 10 to August 3, I visited a 

 farm about one-half mile from Reisters- 

 town, Md., and about twenty miles north- 

 west of Baltimore city. The elevation of 

 the farm was said to be about seven hun- 

 dred feet above sea level. Adjoining the 

 farm is a tract of chestnut woodland, a part 

 of which has been largely denuded of its 

 trees, but which is rather thickly over- 

 grown with chestnut sprouts and other 

 shrubby growth, mostly from four to 

 eight feet high. Along this portion runs a 



