SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 



13s 



At the suggestion of my friend Mr. H. Mousley, instead of destroying the 

 nests, I merely took the eggs in the following year and found that this at once 

 discouraged the birds and they went elsewhere. An omelette of thirty-two Bronzed 

 Crackles' eggs taken from nests on my own house and two of my neighbors I 

 found excellent eating. Robins now nest undisturbed on our houses and their 

 delightful manners and voices form an agreeable change from those of Bronzed 

 Crackles. 



The Bronzed Crackle is, however, a most interesting bird to study, and is 

 very well in its place. Its habit of dipping like a gull and picking up morsels of 

 food and even small living fish from the surface of the water shows a most pro- 

 gressive nature.^ It also alights on floating drift-wood and picks food from the 

 water. I once saw one fly with a piece of bread in its bill to the side of a pond, 

 put the bread in the water, and after it was softened, pick it to pieces and eat it. 



More than once I have heard Bronzed Crackles scream so much like a Com- 

 mon Tern that I was for a while deceived. 



The Bronzed Crackle is a terror to the English Sparrow and the Robin. 

 What its relations with the Starling will be remains to be seen. A few years ago I 

 observed six or eight Crackles peacefully feeding side by side in a grass-field with 

 four Starlings. No enmity was shown by either side and no stealing occurred. 

 When war begins the Starling will find a match in the Yankee bird. 



212 [514] Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina (W. Coop.). 

 Evening Grosbeak. 



Irregular but, during and since the winter of 1915-16, a not uncommon win- 

 ter visitor. December 8 to May 19. 



In the original Memoir an account is given of a remarkable invasion of these 

 birds from their regular range in the northwest in 1890, from January to April. 

 In March, 1904, five of this species were found in Beverly. These were the only 

 records. Mr. Damsell, in his careful records covering the period from 1880 to 

 191 1 at Amesbury, has no note of this bird. 



The winter of 191 5-16 saw a migration of Evening Crosbeaks of consider- 

 able magnitude into New England, and every winter since there has been a return 

 of these birds. As they are particularly fond of the seeds of the box elder or 

 ash-leaved maple (Acer negimdo), and as this tree has been extensively planted 

 over the Creat Plains, it has been thought that they were led to the East by this 



1 Townsend, C. W. Sand Dunes and Salt Marshes, 1913 ; also Auk, vol. 36, p. 627, 1919. 



