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284 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
across the tips of the greater and middle coverts; the outer edges of the quills also 
white, broadest on the tertiaries. 
Female, ashy; brownish above, tinged with greenish-yellow beneath; top of head, 
rump, and upper tail coverts brownish gamboge-yellow; wings as in the male. 
Length, about eight and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, four and fifty one- 
hundredths; tail, four inches. 
LTHOUGH we find in Verrill’s list of birds found at 
Norway, Me., that this species is there a very common 
winter visitor, my experience has been, that it is an ex- 
tremely rare one in Massachusetts, and is only found with 
us in very severe seasons. 
This winter (1866-67), they have been very abundant, 
and good opportunities have been obtained for studying 
their habits. 
Like other northern species, the Pine Grosbeak is very 
tame and familiar while here in winter. Mr. Maynard, of 
Newtonville, Mass., informs me, that he has repeatedly, 
during this season, captured specimens in his hands, and 
has had no difficulty in slipping a noose over their heads, as 
the birds were employed in opening the pine seeds, or eating 
the berries of the cedar; and he has now in captivity a 
number of specimens that are exceedingly tame and inter- 
esting, feeding readily on various seeds and fruits. <A pair 
that I have in my possession, which he captured, are so 
tame that they take food from my hand, and even perch 
upon my finger. Their song is a soft, pleasing warble, not 
unlike that of the canary. 
Both sexes have a number of call-notes, and they keep up 
a continuous twitter through the day: they are always lively 
and good-tempered, and are really entertaining pets. 
Mr. Wheelwright, in his valuable and exceedingly inter- 
esting book, “A Spring and Summer in Lapland,” gives 
the following account of the habits of the European Pine 
Grosbeak, a bird nearly allied to, if not identical with, our 
own: “ By the first week in May, they had paired; and we 
took our first nest on June 4, with three eggs, in a small fir, 
about ten feet from the ground, on the side of a small fell, 
<a 
