43° Bird -Lore 



almost immediately and helped themselves to the corn and sunflower seeds, 

 and House Sparrows flocked to the spot and scratched and fought. The Gros- 

 beaks were still coming daily, so it was with great anticipation that I tele- 

 phoned Miss Bates the following day to learn if they had found the pans. No, 

 I was informed, for the first time, they had not been there. The next day 

 the same answer, and thus it was for a week. I began to think I had started 

 operations too late. Still a few more days passed before they returned, and 

 by this time the Sparrows had devoured all the seed. This happened again 

 and again before the Grosbeaks finally arrived ahead of the Sparrows, and 

 then, to our dismay, they spurned the proffered food. They merely picked 

 off the few remaining cherry seeds and disappeared. Obviously their tastes 

 were too fastidious for this bill-of-fare. 



It was several days before they favored us again, and this time, while 

 they did not touch the seed in the pans, they discovered that on the ground 

 which had been scratched out by the Sparrows and, without looking twice, 

 dropped to the banquet with true avian appreciation. Tin pans invitingly 

 suspended in trees, evidently do not spell food to Evening Grosbeaks. A hint 

 to the wise is sufficient — meals were thereafter served on the ground. The 

 Grosbeaks returned, stayed around for a couple of hours, and came back 

 again the following morning at their accustomed hour, which, for the last few 

 days, had been 6.30 a.m. Now for some photographs. 



The next morning, gray dawn found me at the feeding-station with a 

 camera. I arrived at thirty- two minutes after six, but the Grosbeaks, with 

 their usual promptness, passed me on the way and arrived two minutes earlier. 

 I concealed the camera near the spot and, in so doing, of necessity frightened 

 them away; but expecting that they would soon return, I stretched a thread 

 from the lens-shutter to one of the windows of the house and prepared to 

 await their coming. Breakfast time came and went and office hours began, 

 but still no Grosbeaks. I explained the mechanism of the string to an efficient 

 proxy and went about less romantic labors; but I might have spared us both 

 the trouble, for the Grosbeaks did not come back. 



The following morning everything was in readiness before half after the 

 hour, and I had not long to wait. I took out my watch — twenty-nine min- 

 utes and thirty seconds after six. If they were to be on time, they would have 

 to arrive within thirty seconds. The words were scarcely spoken before a 

 chorus of loud, strident notes announced them. Three males and eight females 

 alighted in the trees over the camera. They discussed matters for a while 

 like a steepleful of Sparrows, before deciding that it was time for breakfast. 

 Two females flew down and arranged themselves before the camera; two more, 

 and then the remaining females. More wary or less greedy, the males delayed; 

 but I determined to wait, before pulling the thread, until at least one of them 

 should get in front of the lens. StiU they hesitated, and [when they finally 

 did drop to the ground, they were not in the plane of focus; only provokingly 



