136 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



favorable food supply. It is to be hoped that this handsome bird, one that always 

 arouses interest by its tameness, large size, and beauty of plumage, will continue 

 to visit us. Miss Viola E. Crittenden watched a flock of nine Evening Grosbeaks 

 in Beverly from December 26, 1915, to April 16, 1916. Mr. Ralph Lawson found 

 two in Salem on March 10, 1916; Mr. Willard Porter two in Boxford on March 

 16 of the same year. Miss S. E. Lakeman found several on the Turkey Shore at 

 Ipswich, in March, and three were seen on Dr. Crockett's farm at Ipswich on 

 March 23 by Miss Cutter. Marion H. Bayley reported^ twenty to thirty at New- 

 buryport on March 22 to 24 in a hedge between a school and a church, feeding 

 undisturbed on the buds of the hedge and dropping the bud-scales on the ground 

 beneath. 



Mr. A. P. Stubbs found two flocks of twelve each at East Lynn on April 5 

 of the same year and some of them stayed until April 19. 



A flock of Evening Grosbeaks variously estimated from forty to sixty in 

 numbers spent the winter of 1916-17 in Beverly from December 27 to May 13. 

 That same winter fifteen stayed in Lynn, and some were seen at Peach's Point, 

 Marblehead. In tlie winter of 191 7-18, the bird was reported from North 

 Saugus, Lynnfield, and Topsfield. 



In the winter of 1918-19, a flock of twenty was seen at Methuen on January 

 14 by Mr. Thomas Smith, president of the Lawrence Natural History Society. 

 Eight were seen on February 23, 1919, at Ipswich, by Mr. Wayne Henderson; 

 three at Essex on April 8 by Mr. A. B. Fuller and one at Rowley on April 28 by 

 Mr. J. D. Sornborger. Dr. Thomas Barbour reported a flock of 75 to 100 at 

 Beveriy Farms from March 10 to May 19, 1919. 



Birds in the female and immature plumage have always largely outnumbered 

 the brilliant yellow-and-black-plumaged adult males. The recognition of the bird 

 even by laymen is easy. They have a loud clear call-note besides several low 

 conversational notes, some of which are slightly trilled. They are very tame and 

 flocks feeding in bushes in suburban regions are often surrounded by a large 

 audience and by waiting automobiles. Besides the seeds of the box-elder. Evening 

 Grosbeaks are fond of various berries and particularly of small Parkman crab- 

 apples. I'rom these they extract the seed, sometimes without detaching the fruit 

 from the tree. 



' Bayley, M. H. Bird-Lore, vol. 18, pp. iSj, 183, 1916. 



