192 



PINE-GROSBEAK. 



Silesia, and Poland, are irregular. Accepting the records without 

 criticism, it has strayed at long intervals to Belgium, France and 

 Southern Germany ; while, probably following the line of the moun- 

 tain pine-woods, a solitary example appears to have crossed the Alps 

 to theTrentino in the winter of 1S76. Its home is principally in the 

 conifer region near the Arctic circle ; but sometimes, as at Pulmak 

 in Lapland, it extends to the birch-woods as far as 70" N. lat. ; while 

 eastward, the bird is plentiful in Northern Russia, across Siberia to 

 Kamschatka, and as far south as Lake Baikal ; as a straggler it has 

 also been obtained in the Kuril islands to the north of Japan. In 

 America it occurs throughout the Arctic and sub-Arctic forests, 

 migrating southward in winter to California, Colorado and the 

 northern portions of the Eastern States. 



For a knowledge of the nesting habits and eggs of the Pine- 

 Grosbeak, Englishmen are indebted, as in so many other cases, to 

 the ardent researches of the late John WoUey, who discovered its 

 breeding-haunts in Lapland. The nest, similar to that of the Bull- 

 finch, consists externally of interlaced birch-twigs, with a lining of 

 fine stiff grass, and is usually placed on the horizontal branches of a 

 fir or a birch-tree, near the bole. The eggs are deep greenish-blue, 

 spotted with brownish-purple : average measurements i in. by 72 in. 

 The food consists partly of insects, but mainly of buds, birch- 

 catkins, seeds and various berries. The song has been described as 

 loud and flute-hke ; the flight is undulating. 



The adult male has the feathers of the head, back and rump 

 suffused with rich rose-red, upon a ground-colour of slate-grey ; 

 wings ash-brown, with broad pinkish white tips to both sets of wing- 

 coverts, and white margins to the secondaries ; tail dusky-brown ; 

 under parts rose-red, turnmg to grey on the flanks and vent ; bill 

 dark brown, paler at the base of the lower mandible ; legs blackish- 

 brown. Length 8 in. ; wing 4-25 in. Iii the female the rose tint is 

 replaced by a more or less golden-yellow, except on the back, which 

 is slate-grey. The young have a greyish-green tinge. Mr. A. C 

 Chapman found a pair of birds breeding in this greyish-green plum- 

 age, the male having rather more of the yellow colour than the 

 female ; another nest belonged to a couple of greyish-green birds ; 

 while at a third nest a male in full rosy plumage was paired with an 

 ash-grey female. 



Many authors have accepted the genus Pinicola of Vieillot for 

 this species. 



