68 THE WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK. 
the aggregate the saving to the nation amounts to some hundreds of thous- 
ands of dollars each year. Even in winter, when a few individuals or occa- 
sional companies of Larks are still to be found, a large proportion of their 
food consists of hardy beetles and other insects, while weed-seed and scatter- 
ing grain is laid under tribute, as it were, reluctantly. 
It goes without saying that we cannot regard this bird as lawful game. 
We exempt the horse from slaughter not because its flesh is unfit for food— 
it is really very sapid—but because the animal has endeared itself to our race 
by generations of faithful service. We place the horse in another category, 
that of animal friend. And the human race, the best of it, has some time 
since discovered compunctions about eating its friends. Make friends with 
this bonny bird, the Meadowlark, and you will be ashamed thenceforth to 
even discuss assassination. Fricassee of prima donna! Voice of morning 
en brochette! Bird-of-merry-cheer on toast! Faugh! And yet that sort 
of thing passed muster a generation ago—does yet in the darker parts of 
Europe! 
No. 23. 
WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK. 
A. O. U. No. 514a. Hesperiphona vespertina montana Ridgway. 
Description Adult male: Forehead and superciliaries gamboge yellow; 
feathers about base of bill, lores, and crown black; wings black with large white 
patch formed by tips of inner secondaries and tertials; tail black; remaining 
plumage sooty olive brown about head and neck, shading thru olive and olive- 
green to yellow on wing and under tail-coverts. Bill bluish horn-color and citron 
yellow; feet brownish. Adult female: General color deep smoky brownish gray 
or buffy brown, darker on the head, lighter on wings, lighter, more buffy, on sides, 
shading to dull whitish on throat and abdomen, tinged with yellowish green on 
hind-neck, clearing to light yellow on axillars and under wing-coverts; a small 
clear white patch at base of inner primaries; white blotches on tips of upper 
tail-coverts and inner webs of tail-feathers in varying proportions. Length about 
8.00 (203.2) ; wing 4.39 (111.5) ; tail 2.42 (61.4) ; bill 82 (20.8) ; depth at base 
.62 (15.9) ; tarsus. 81 (20.3). Female very slightly smaller. 
Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; olive-brown coloration with black and 
white in masses on wings; large, conical beak distinctive; high-pitched call note. 
Nesting.—Has not yet been found breeding in Washington but undoubtedly 
does so. Nest (as reported from New Mexico): principally composed of fine 
rootlets with some Usnea moss and a few sticks, settled upon horizontal branches 
of pine or fir, near tip, and at considerable heights; in loose colonies. Eggs: 4, 
“in color, size, form, and texture indistinguishable from those of the Red-winged 
Blackbird” ( Birtwell). 
