8 Nesting of the BJaelc-h ended Groshealc. 



a breeding species, to the Eastern States but the present 

 species is a bird of Western America and is seen in summer 

 in suitable localities from the Plains to the Pacific, wintering 

 in Mexico. A friend of mine, who used to live in California, 

 has several specimens in his collection, and tells me that it 

 used to nest in a swamp near his house. 



My pair built a large, untidy nest early this summer 

 in the bare fork of an apple tree and laid two large eggs of 

 a pale blue ground colour, boldly spotted with leddish -brown, 

 with a few purplish maculations. The male sat quite as 

 much, or perhaps more than, the female. All went well 

 till a couple of days before the eggs were due to hatch when, 

 with the object of discovering the best class of insect food 

 for rearing the young, I supplied some mealworms and other 

 dainties, with the unfortunate result that the male attacked 

 the female most savagely, driving her up and down the aviary. 

 During one of these scrimmages the eggs must have beenf. 

 kicked out for I picked them up the following day on the 

 ground, one partly hatched and the other chipped (incubation 

 period 12 days). 



However, they soon made another attempt. This time 

 the nest was constructed in an equally conspicuous position, 

 on a horizontal bougli of an apple-tree only six inches below 

 the roof of netting. One of the charms of aviculture in this 

 district is the Tawny Owls: out of a total of 45 birds in 

 my breeding aviary this spring they either killed outright 

 or maimed no less than fifteen. As showing how closely the 

 Grosbeaks sat I may mention that the etcetera Owls snipped 

 off the head of a Pipit just two feet from the nest (the exact 

 spot being marked by the feathers adhering to the netting) one 

 night, and yet the female must have stuck to her post for 

 the eggs hatched. Incubation commenced on the 14th May 

 (again only two eggs being laid )and the young hatched on 

 the 27th. 



They were at first thinly covered with long bluish grey 

 down, and looked promising but on the following day one 

 vanished or, shall I say, was translated to another sphere for, 

 as usual, no trace was left — not even S, short note to say, how, 

 or whj or when it departed. On the sixth day the sur- 

 vivor was showing flight feathers in the quill, and, as he was 



