40 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 18-No. 3 



and ornithologists of Michigan have failed 

 to meet with it. A careful observer might 

 live a lifetime in one locality and fail to re- 

 cord this bird, while the flocks may have 

 passed or even remained for the winter 

 within a few miles of him. This is a strag- 

 gler, the dispersion of which can only lie 

 imderstood through the combined attention 

 of the observers of a state. 



However, when the species makes its ap- 

 pearance in our midst it is an easy matter to 

 study its habits, for the bird is very confiding. 

 In fact, we can safely say that it is stupid in 

 its lack of caution, and it is fair to believe 

 it the most approachable and unsuspicious 

 of all birds that visit us. It is eminently 

 gregarious, like most of our smaller northern 

 visitors, and even more so than its near rela- 

 tive, the Evening Grosbeak. 



On the two occasions when I studied the 

 Pine Grosbeak, January and February of the 

 years 1874 and 1875, the flocks occupied 

 the trees in the heart of the village. The 

 birds were particularly plentiful in 1875, and 

 large flocks could be seen at nearly all times 

 in our public park, where they mainly roosted 

 in the clumps of thick evergreens. The 

 birds fed to a [considerable extent on the 

 buds of various trees and shrubs, much re- 

 sembling the Evening Grosbeak in its man- 

 ner of perching and biting off the buds. 

 There are many habits in which the two are 

 alike. In our village, there were at that 

 time many American mountain ash trees, 

 pvriis aincricana, which were loaded with 

 the orange-colored berries. This fruit con- 

 stituted the main reliance of the Grosbeaks 

 during their visits ; at the close of their stay 

 with us there was not a berry left for the 

 early Robins, which not rarely feed on them. 



When feeding the birds seem oblivious of 

 danger, and one can approach within a rod 

 of a flock, but if one bird f^ies the flock 

 quickly follows the lead, the movement of 

 escape being accompanied by a series of 

 their low, pleasing chirps. This call note, 

 uttered singlv when the birds are feeding un- 



disturbed, is the only sound which I have 

 heard from them in winter. 



In the winter of 1874 I secured but three 

 specimens, which were all in the gray or 

 drab plumage, and I saw but one brilliant 

 carmine male the entire season, in a flock 

 of fifteen or twenty. An acquaintance of 

 mine secured a fine drab specimen alive and 

 confined it in a cage. In the spring it as- 

 sumed a change of plumage, appearing of a 

 tawny or yellowish and entirely different 

 from the usual coat that we see here. This 

 was undoubtedly a female, as it never gave 

 voice to any song whatever. 



In 1875 I armed myself wdth a shotgun 

 and a permit from the president of our \\\- 

 lage board, and went into the park for birds 

 and secured a large number, among which 

 were three carmine males. There were sev- 

 eral hundred birds in Kalamazoo that year, 

 and though I cannot feel certain about the 

 number all told, I feel safe in saying that 

 there were just seven bright males in the lot. 

 I think that the proportion of sombre plu- 

 maged birds to the carmine birds is about 

 thirty or more to one. I have observed a 

 flock of over fifty birds in January with not 

 a brilliant specimen in it. 



Several were captured alive by the boys, 

 who stunned them with snowballs, and a 

 large number were killed in various ways. 

 At one time, and when the thermometer in- 

 dicated 18° F., the birds were very sluggish, 

 appearing as if stupefied. I killed one with 

 a short stick by, reaching up and knocking 

 it from its perch. Still I do not believe that 

 it is the cold which brings these birds or any 

 other irregular northern visitors to our neigh- 

 borhood. 



One which I kept alive for several days 

 fed on seeds of nearly all kinds, but appeared 

 especially fond of apple seeds. It would 

 tear apple cores to pieces very quickly, to 

 get at the seeds. One bird, undoubtedly a 

 male, which was captured in the plain plu- 

 mage, took on the yellowish coat in May, I 

 believe, and re.sembled the captive female 



