182 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vot. III. 
The Rose-colored Pastor (Pastor roseus), a bird allied to the English 
Starling, affords another example of these irregular migrations. An 
immense flock of them, numbering many thousands, appeared in the 
neighborhood of Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria, in the month of June, 
1889. They were very tame, and were easily caught by hand. 
This bird’s usual habitat is in Armenia, Persia, and Southern Russia. 
A similar flock visited Bulgaria, twelve years before, in 1877. 
In January and February, 1890, the city of Toronto was invaded by 
hundreds of Evening Grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertina). 
This bird is described in Mr. Chamberlain’s Catalogue of Canadian 
Birds as “ an abundant resident of British Columbia, east of the Cascades, 
and occasionally found on the western slope, and in Vancouver Island. 
It isa common winter visitor to Manitoba, and a few specimens have 
been taken in Ontario.” And in Ridgeway’s Manual it is said to be an 
irregular winter visitor to Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. 
There are records of their occurrence, in small numbers, in Ontario on 
four occasions, viz.: in the years 1854, 1866, 1871, and 1883 ; but in 1890 
they came in numerous flocks, and some went as far as Montreal. In 
the States they visited Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, States, which, with the exception 
of New York, they had never before been known to visit. 
Some of them remained till the end of April, or beginning of May, 
after which they al] seem to have returned to their usual habitat. 
Their name was given them under the impression, which seems to have 
been erroneous, that they sang in the evening. 
They belong to the large family of the Frzngzllide or Finches. 
The conical shape of the beak is a distinguishing feature of this 
family, and this feature is more strikingly developed in the Evening 
Grosbeak than in any other finch of this continent, so that its beak is a 
very powerful instrument for cracking seeds and nipping off buds. 
The European representative of the genus Coccothraustes is the Haw- 
finch (C. vulgaris), a bird that is often found in England. You will see 
from the specimen that I exhibit, that the conical bill is even more 
developed in this bird, than in the Evening Grosbeak. 
THEIR APPEARANCE IN ONTARIO. 
Mr. Mcllwraith writes from Hamilton that “the Grosbeaks were first 
observed there on Dec. 19th, 1889. Flock after flock passed along, going 
