366 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



ten to forty feet. The eggs are said to resemble those of the 

 Black-headed Grosbeak, being pale greenish blue, blotched 

 and spotted with pale brown, umber and black. 



Genus PINICOLA Vieillot. 



515. Pinicola enucleator leucura (Muller). Pine Grosbeak. 



Plumage of adult male : the head, throat, breast, sides, back and rump, all 

 or part of these edged and washed with beautiful rose red ; wings fuscous, 

 the primaries often narrowly edged on the outer web with yellowish brown ; 

 wing coverts edged with white, forming two distinct bars ; tail fuscous, the 

 feathers often edged very narrowly with yellowish brown ; otherwise on 

 back and breast and belly where not red, slaty gray. Plumage of adult 

 female : wings and tail as in male ; general color otherwise slaty gray save 

 for the crown, upper tail coverts and breast which are washed with dull 

 olive yellow. Plumage of immature male : similar in general to the female 

 but washed on rump, breast and crown with a deeper, more orange tinged 

 or reddish shade of yellow. Wing 4.70 ; culmen 0.56 ; tarsus 0.90. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern North America east of the Rocky Mountains, rang- 

 ing north to Arctic regions, range not well distinguished from that of the 

 several recognized western subspecies ; breeding from northern Maine north- 

 ward through Labrador and westward ; in winter ranging southward to the 

 Middle Atlantic and northern tier of western states sporadically. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common winter visitant, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook; sporadically common in winter, rare resident, breeding in the 

 wilder sections of the Woolastook Valley and probably elsewhere in the 

 county, (Knight). Cumberland; common winter migrant, (Mead). Frank- 

 lin; common winter resident, (Swain). Hancock; winter visitor which is 

 sporadically common, very rare in summer in the wildest reaches of Otis and 

 Union River country, (Knight). Kennebec ; common winter visitor, (Gar- 

 diner Branch). Knox; winter, (Rackliff). Oxford; common in winter, rare 

 in summer ; in 1882 I saw a pair of old Pine Grosbeaks with four young just 

 out of the nest in the mountains at Stow, (Nash). Penobscot; always pres- 

 ent in winter, some winters sporadically abundant, other winters only a few, 

 also very rare summer resident of the wilderness, (Knight). Piscataquis; 

 common winter visitor, (Homer). Sagadahoc; irregularly common winter 

 visitor, (Spinney). Somerset ; irregularly common winter visitor, (Morrell). 

 found breeding near Jackman, (Miss Maddox). Waldo ; sporadic winter vis- 

 itor of variable abundance, (Knight). Washington ; common in winter, rare 

 summer resident, (Boardman). York ; regular winter visitant, (Adams). 



The Pine Grosbeak is a bird of erratic tendencies to a great 



extent, its comings and goings in winter being seemingly to a 



great extent dependent upon the food supply in its northern 



