JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



49 



came entirely covered with snow. 



On January 18 I saw the bird again 

 an eighth of a mile away, now on the 

 bank of the Presumpscott River at a 

 spot kept bare by steam discharged 

 from a manufactory. 



On the 19th what was undoubtedly 

 the same bird was reported to me 

 from the same premises. It was not 

 seen or reported after this date. 



Akthur H. Norton. 



Quail— Cti//«/« virgiuiamts (LiNN). 



The fact that Bob White is becom- 

 ing once more a resident of the State 

 of Maine is and ought to be a matter 

 of the highest importance to our 

 members and readers and the Jour- 

 nal particularly desires prior to our 

 next issue to receive careful and de- 

 tailed reports as to its occurrence. 



These highly prized game birds 

 have been gradually, very gradually 

 entering our western borders and 

 have remained to breed. 



In the fall of 1902 there were sever- 

 al flocks noted. In 1903 even a great- 

 er number were seen. The past win- 

 ter will undoubtedly prove a hard 

 one to them and jeopardize their 

 very existence, and we ask our ob- 

 servers to take especial pains to as- 

 certain what effect this duration of 

 extreme cold and crusty snow has 

 had upon the various coveys and re- 

 port to us early the result of their in- 

 vestigations. Many ornithologists 

 question the ability of C. virgin ia us 

 to thrive in our state on account of 

 the long and extremely cold winters 

 and shovild we be able to show that 

 the few flocks that were with us last 

 fall have wintered without great mor- 

 tality it will certainly have a ten- 

 dency to disprove their theories. 

 Let us have a definite record then of 

 every pair noticed breeding this 

 spring and let every member and all 

 those having a friendly interest in 

 these birds take especial pains to im- 

 press upon others the important fact 

 that although a game bird Bob White 

 in this state is protected at all times 

 and that for him and his mate and 

 brood there is no open season. 

 The Nesting of the Pine Gros- 

 beak IN Maine. 



In a recent article in the Bangor 

 Commercial the following portion of 

 an article on this bird took my eye: 

 Four years ago in the month of May 

 I found a Grosbeak's nest about sev- 



en miles north of Jackman, near a 

 sporting camp at the Hale Pond. 

 The nest was not in thick woods but 

 in open pasture near the Canada 

 road. It was woven of twigs and 

 moss, lined with rabbits' hair and 

 containing four pale blue-green eggs 

 flecked with purple and hardly to be 

 distinguished from the moss itself. 

 This nest was in a fir tree about four 

 feet from the ground. It was neatly 

 woven but much less substantial than 

 most nests of that size. Probably the 

 fact that that region is 3000 feet 

 above the sea level accounts for a 

 nest in that latitude. When the 

 young hatched I fed them with sev- 

 eral different kinds of fruit and seeds, 

 taking care not to alarm the mother 

 bird and giving but a small quantity 

 each day. There were two males and 

 two females in this nest for their dif- 

 ference in plumage was well marked 

 when they began to use their wings." 

 On writing to the author of this 

 article requesting additional infor- 

 mation with permission to publish it 

 the following reply was received: 

 "O. W. Knight, Bangor, 

 Dear Sir: — 



"In reply to your in- 

 quiry for further information about 

 the grosbeak's nest I will say that 

 by searching some old records kept 

 while laboring at the Mission I find 

 that the incubation was completed 

 on May 27th, being the thirteenth 

 day after the fourth and last egg of 

 the clutch appeared in the nest. 

 The female bird as far as I could 

 learn did all the sitting. Several 

 times I surprised the male bringing 

 her food and saw her leave the nest 

 and receive it from him, near but 

 never on the nest. Both parent 

 birds fed the fledglings before and 

 after they left the nest, which oc- 

 curred the twentieth day after they 

 were hatched. The male sang 

 mornings during incubation but not 

 near the nest, his favorite perch 

 being the top of a cedar tree sever- 

 al rods away. Sometimes after the 

 young appeared he would alight on 

 the same perch and utter a few soft 

 clear notes, but his songs were few- 

 er and shorter for the young seem- 

 ed always hungry. 



These birds were much less timid 

 than our native birds. I could sit 

 near their nest for hours without 

 their taking alarm if I kept still. I 



