WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. 197 
With the pine grosbeaks the case is different. 
When a man sees a company of rather large 
birds about the evergreens in his door-yard, most 
of them of a neutral ashy-gray tint, but one or 
two in suits of rose-color, he is pretty certain to 
feel at least a momentary curiosity about them. 
Their slight advantage in size counts for some- 
thing ; for, without controversy, the bigger the 
bird the more worthy he is of notice. And 
then the bright color! The very best men are 
as yet but imperfectly civilized, and there must 
be comparatively few, even of Bostonians, in 
whom there is not some lingering susceptibility 
to the fascination of red feathers. Add to these 
things the fact that the grosbeaks are extremely 
confiding, and much more likely than the bunt- 
ings to be seen from the windows of the house, 
and you have, perhaps, a sufficient explanation 
of the more general interest they excite. Like 
the snow buntings and the red-polls, they roam 
over the higher latitudes of Europe, Asia, and 
America, and make only irregular visits to our 
corner of the world.} 
Icannot boast of any intimate acquaintance 
with them. I have never caught them in a net, 
or knocked them over with a club, as other per- 
1 Unlike the snow bunting and the red-poll, however, the pine 
grosbeak is believed to breed sparingly in Northern New Eng- 
land. 
