196 Sketches of So7ne Comynon Birds. 



"potato-bug bird," eiiice it is one of the few birds known 

 to feed on that scourge of the gardener. I have myself 

 startled it in the act of feeding on the potato beetles upon 

 the vines, when it would fly into a convenient tree and 

 wipe its heavy bill carefully on the branch on which it 

 was seated. The food of the grosbeak consists almost 

 exclusively of noxious insects, and its services in this way 

 are incalculable. In the Report of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture for 1889, page 369, occurs this note: "With the 

 G-rosbeak the habit of eating potato- bugs proves to be 

 fairly constant, but unfortunately the bird does not seem 

 to be very abundant anywhere, and hence the resulting 

 benefits have not been generally noticed. Some of our 

 correspondents have suggested that the scarcity of this 

 bird and perhaps of others may be due to the habit of 

 eating insects in places where Paris green has been used, 

 but after careful inquiry we find no warrant for believing 

 such to be the case. We have not been able to learn of a 

 single instance in which any undomesticated bird has 

 been found dead in the vicinity of potato fields under cir- 

 cumstances pointing to this cause. Birds certainly exer- 

 cise much judgment in selecting their food, and it is not 

 probable that they would eat sickly or dying insects so 

 long as healthy ones were to be found." Very few birds 

 prey upon the pest of the potato grower, and when one is 

 found to aid the gardener in his work, it should be jeal- 

 ously protected in its nesting and in its general habits. 



Very early in July the expressive melody of the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak ceases to float down to our ears. On 

 the fifth of July, 1896, I was delighted with the eloquent 

 notes of a loquacious male which made frequent journeys 

 along a row of maples in front of the house where I was 

 staying. For two or three hours in the morning and for 

 about the same time toward evening he was especially 

 voluble. The season of song usually ends when the young 

 leave the nest, and thereafter only the sharp ''kick" 

 apprises the listener of the proximity of his feathered 

 friend, whose movements otherwise attract little attention, 

 and who is generally overlooked during the latter part 

 of the season. 



The rose-breasted grosbeaks which sing to any degree 



