168 THE BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. 
stalks, lined, or not, with fine dead grasses; set loosely in branches of bush or 
sapling, 6 to 20 feet up. Eggs: 4, greenish blue, boldly spotted or blotched with 
reddish brown, dusky brown and lavender, most heavily about larger end. Ay. 
size 1.00x .68 (25.4x 17.27). Season: East-side, May 20; West-side, May 25; 
one brood. 
Authorities.— ? “Fringilla melanocephala, Audubon, Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 
519; pl. 373 (Col. Riv.)”: Baird, 499. Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. 
Sioa, MAIL. fori I, ISO, Als, ACB ))o (CAS, TRYni, ID Ia, IDE, Sse, Ifa 18, 18; 
Specimens.—P. B. E. 
THOSE who complain of our lack of song-birds should make the 
acquaintance of this really skilled musician. He will not often be found 
in the city parks, nor yet in the fir forests; but wherever there are deciduous 
trees, not too dense, or tall thickets of willow and alder beside some lake 
or sluggish stream, there will this minstrel hold 
forth. The Grosbeak’s song is not unlike the 
longer lay of the Robin, but it is richer and 
rounder as well as more subdued. There is 
about it all a 
lingering lan- 
THOT OL MmEMeE 
Southland; and 
if the gentle- 
man addressed 
you, you would 
expect him to 
say “Sah,” with 
a soft cadence. 
The bird's 
carol has the 
rolling quality 
which serves to 
connect it with 
Taken in Clallam County. Photo by the Author. that of the 
THE GROSBEAK’S CONCERT HALL. 
eastern Rose- 
breasted Grosbeak, but it is sweeter, more varied, and shows, if anything, 
a still more strongly marked undertone of liquid harmonics. 
The male Grosbeak is, moreover, an indefatigable singer, choosing for 
his purpose the topmost sprays of alder or cottonwood, and taking pains 
to give all intruders a wide berth during the concert hours. His attachment 
to a given locality becomes apparent only after he has been pursued from 
tree to tree in a wide circuit which brings up at the original station. And 
