BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 293 



175. Zamelodia ludoviciana (Linn.). 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



Very common summer resident. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



April 30, 1896, one male seen and heard, Belmont, A. S. Oilman. 



May 10 — September 10. 

 October 3, 1894, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 25 — June 8. 



After dealing with so many ihds which have nearly or quite disappeared 

 from Cambridge and its suburbs during the past quarter of a century, it is no 

 small pleasure and satisfaction to come to one whose local history forms such a 

 marked exception to the rule as does that of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Dur- 

 ing the earlier years of my experience this beautiful species was seldom or never 

 seen in summer to the eastward of Fresh Pond and Mount Auburn excepting in 

 Norton's Woods. In the Fresh Pond Swamps and in the woods immediately to 

 the westward of Mount Auburn it then bred regularly, if sparingly, and in the 

 Belmont-Arlington-Lexington- Waltham region was quite as numerously repre- 

 sented as it is at the present day. About 1880 it began to appear in densely 

 populated parts of Cambridge, and during the next fifteen years it increased in 

 numbers and extended its local distribution there. By 1896, the year of its 

 maximum abundance, it had become almost as common as the Baltimore Oriole 

 throughout a district which would be roughly bounded by a line drawn from 

 Mount Auburn to Harvard Square, thence through the College Grounds to 

 Norton's Woods, thence to the Botanic Garden, and finally back to Fresh Pond 

 and Mount Auburn. Within this area the rich, smoothly flowing songs of the 

 male Grosbeaks were heard almost everywhere in May and June for several suc- 

 cessive seasons. The birds have been somewhat less numerous here of late, 

 although by no means uncommon. They nest in shade trees close to houses 

 and in apple or pear trees in gardens. Since 1883 they have repeatedly bred in 

 our own garden, and they never fail to visit it in June and July when the cher- 

 ries and mulberries are ripe. 



The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a summer resident of many localities in the 

 country districts of the Cambridge Region. It is especially common about 



