October, 1S92.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



49 



nests ; " and that accounts for what I have 

 to say further on. 



The staple articles of diet among the 

 Fringillidie are the seeds of the golden 

 rods, wild sunflowers (the seeds of 

 which are widely known in Massachusetts 

 as Devil's Pitchforks), red alder berries, 

 mullen, wild peppergrass, burdock and 

 the milkweeds, chiefly because these 

 plants constitute a never-failing crop, and 

 are nearly always accessible, for even the 

 deepest snow never covers them all ; the 

 tall stalks of the plants bearing the seed- 

 vessels aloft and ever in reach of the hun- 

 gry multitude. 



Then, too, there are all the grasses, too 

 numerous to mention, and are invariably 

 liked by all seed-eating birds, and there 

 are many other plants to which single or 

 a few species resort. 



The Pine Finches, when they are here 

 at all, and the Thistle Birds are both fond 

 of the seeds of our pine and fir trees, and 

 during the winter of 1887-88, when the 

 former bird was especially common, the 

 seeds of these trees and the burdock con- 

 stituted its main food. 



The Crossbills, never very numerous, 

 also feed largely on coniferous seeds, and 

 a year or two ago I shot one which was 

 eating the seeds of wild rose tips, and I 

 have seen the Pine Grosbeak feeding on 

 the same article. 



The Grosbeaks sometimes come in 

 great numbers to feed on the seeds of the 

 hackmetack trees, of which they are very 

 fond, and seasons when they are with us 

 they are always to be found in their im- 

 mediate vicinity. They eat any grain 

 that is exposed to them, and also devour 

 great quantities of maple buds, visiting 

 indiscriminately trees in the heart of the 

 town or in suburban villages, and I am 

 sorry to say that the Purple Finches and 

 Thistle Birds sometimes keep them com- 

 pany. 



Robins and Blue Birds, too, are some- 



times seen at this season, and are some- 

 times accompanied by the Wax-wings 

 while feeding on barberries, the fruit of 

 mountain ash, "horse" brier berries, and 

 those of the cedar and juniper, while with 

 Blue Jays and Partridge Woodpeckers, 

 they sometimes frequent the " wild " 

 apple trees and the orchards, in search of 

 any frozen fruit which may have been 

 overlooked at fall picking. 



The Yellow Rump Warbler, nearly al- 

 ways a common winter resident, feeds 

 on a number of different seeds, and eats 

 barberries and birch buds quite exten- 

 sively. 



There seems to be two ways of feeding 

 among the Finches, the Linnets, Redpolls 

 and Goldfinches preferring to cling to 

 whatever they feed upon, while the 

 Snow Birds, Song Sparrows, and Tree 

 Sparrows like to remain upon or near 

 the ground, and eat whatever seeds have 

 fallen or are within their reach ; conse- 

 quently their articles of diet vary slightly. 



A flock of birds consisting of represen- 

 tatives of each of these species may be 

 feeding in company, yet they do not great- 

 ly interfere with each other. Those of 

 the former group, though occasionally 

 on the ground, keep mostly to the tops 

 of the swaying weeds and are often seen 

 clinging, back downward, to the hard- 

 pack and mullen stalks, or opening dex- 

 terously a stray milkweed pod or belated 

 thistle. 



Their companions, meanwhile, give 

 their attention to seeds of grasses and wild 

 peppergrass, or the seed of goldenrod or 

 other high j^l^nts, which may fall from 

 the shaking which their companions give, 

 higher up among the dry dead stalks. 



All these birds, and epecially the 

 ground feeding ones, are very partial to all 

 the cultivated cereals when they can get 

 them, and for some years I was in the 

 habit of keeping a grain board, — an ele- 

 vated platform out of reach of stray cats 



