1891-92.] THE MIGRATION OF THE EVENING GROSBEAK IN 1890. 185 
These Pine Grosbeaks visited Toronto in great numbers while the 
Evening Grosbeaks were here. They were also very numerous six 
years ago, in February and March, 1884. 
Professor Newton of England thinks that the Sand Grouse 
migrations to Europe were caused by great increase in numbers, and a 
consequent difficulty in procuring the means of existence. 
The evening Grosbeaks, probably, breed in uninhabited districts, where 
they have no human and, perhaps, very few natural enemies. They may 
have so increased in numbers that their usual winter supply of food was 
inadequate for them, and hence the unusual extent of their migration. 
But whatever was the cause, they all seem to have returned to their 
usual haunts for the breeding season. 
THEIR FOOD. 
Their food was very various. In Ontario they fed on the berries of 
the Cedar and Mountain Ash, on apple seeds, choke cherries, haw-stones, 
and on the sprouted seeds of the Maple and White Ash. 
They were very tame while in Toronto, often allowing themselves to 
be approached within a few feet, and many of them were caught alive, 
and kept for some time in cages. One female belonging to Mr. G. E. 
Atkinson is still living. 
I have a mounted specimen of a male bird on the table, kindly lent by 
Mr. Blackburn, which shows very distinctly the whitish spot on the inner 
web of the two outer feathers on each side of the tail. Only a few of the 
males show this marking, the tail feathers being, generally, entirely 
black. The specimen exhibited, was taken in Toronto during the second 
week in February, 1890. 
