252 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



141. Pinicola enucleator leucura (Miill.). 

 Pine Grosbeak. 



Irregular winter visitor, frequently common, sometimes abundant. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



October 24, 1S70, one or two seen, Belmont, W. Brewster. 



November i — March 25. 

 April 4, 1893, two seen, Arlington, R. Hoffmann. 

 April 24, 1896, one seen (Granary Burying Ground, Boston), F. H. Allen. 



Although a few Pine Grosbeaks are known to breed among the mountains 

 of northern New England, most of the birds which we see in Massachusetts un- 

 questionably come from still further north. It is thought that they migrate 

 southward only when the northern forests fail to yield a sufficient supply of food. 

 Hence they visit us at irregular intervals and in varying numbers. Within the 

 Cambridge Region they are seen oftenest in hilly pastures grown up to Virginia 

 junipers, the berries of which seem to especially attract them. They also fre- 

 quent pine and hemlock woods, and at times they come freely into densely popu- 

 lated parts of our cities and towns to feed on the fruit of the mountain ash, the 

 buds of the Norway spruce, the seeds of the white ash, and the buds or fruit of 

 various other cultivated trees. Although frequently common, they seldom occur 

 in very great numbers, and males in fully mature plumage are not often met with. 

 During the winter of 1892- 1893, however, Pine Grosbeaks appeared in multi- 

 tudes, and the rosy red males, although not proportionately more numerous than 

 is usually the case, were seen almost everywhere. 



The advance guard of this remarkable flight did not reach the Cambridge 

 Region until the first week of December (1892). Before the close of the month 

 the birds had become abundant in the cedar pastures at Arlington Heights, and 

 on the 2 1 St a flock of twenty-seven visited our garden, but I saw no others in 

 Cambridge until the second week of January (1893). On the 9th of that month 

 upward of forty-five appeared in some Norway spruces on Brattle Street, and 

 early the following morning I found a still larger number assembling in a white 

 ash tree which overhangs Mount Auburn Street near Elmwood. " This tree 

 was loaded with fruit, and with snow clinging to the fruit-clusters and to every 

 twig. In a few minutes it also supported more than a himdred Grosbeaks who 

 distributed themselves quite evenly over every part from the drooping lower, to 

 the upright upper, branches and began shelling out and swallowing the seeds, the 



