FAMILY Fringillide. 
buildings, built mostly of grasses and twigs. Egg, blue- 
white or pale greenish blue. In the old world this species 
winters in southern Europe or crosses the Mediterranean , 
to northern Africa. 
The Starling is scarcely a singer, his notes are an inde- 
scribable jumble of mixed tones including a few sweet whis- 
tles. There is the twang of the jews’-harp, the squeak of 
a rusty gate-hinge, the cluck of the hen, and the rattle of a 
wire spring in his tones—one can scarcely call them tunes! 
But frequently he indulges in a few short and sweet whis- 
tles. It would be useless to attempt any musical notations 
of such a voice as distinct intervals are quite lacking. 1 
quote W. H. Hudson’s admirable description of the Star- 
ling’s spring efforts. ‘‘His merit lies less in the quality of 
the sounds he utters than in their endless variety. Ina 
leisurely way he will sometimes ramble on for an hour, 
whistling and warbling very agreeably, mingling his finer 
notes with chatterings, cluckings, squealings, and sounds 
as of snapping the fingers and of kissing, with many others 
quite indescribable.”’ The fact is, the Starling is a polyglot 
—but not a mimic. What he has to say is all his own, and 
the rest of us can not match a word of it with anything we 
know. Being English, his song is a possible rendering of 
Thomson’s ‘‘Come gentle spring”’; but to the American ear 
his tongue is hopelessly twisted, which affliction may be 
due in part to the violence of the American spring. Would 
anyone venture to question that possibility? 
Family Fringillide. 
Evening The Evening Grosbeak is a boreal species 
Grosbeak . Rees tee : 
whose winter visitations in the northerly 
Hesperiphone ; JP eens 
seen States (especially of the Mississippi Valley) 
L.7.80inches are irregular but inevitably recurrent along 
Winter with plentiful seed crops. Mr. Eaton reports 
large migrations in the years 1875, ’82, ’86, ’89, ’90, 96, ’99, 
1900, ’04, ’06, 710,’11. In the winter of 1919 Mr. Forbush 
reported the bird unusually plentiful in every county of 
the mainland in Massachusetts. The colors are quite 
distinguished, and in a measure like the White-winged 
Crossbill suggest the Canary. Forehead and a bar above 
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