Vol l9^ XV ] General Notes. 355 



wall was thin. This opening was nearly a millimeter across and was 

 evidently of old standing, as the corneous hardened gizzard lining extended 

 through to the outer surface, completely sheathing the walls of the opening. 

 There was a slight depression on the outer surface of the stomach, evidently 

 made by the projecting leg. This depression was lined with a thickened, 

 skin-like deposit. The stomach lining had been shed recently as part of 

 the old inner surface still adhered at one side near the wound. 



The stomach was full, containing berries, Pentatomid remains, tibia of 

 a locustid, etc." — Arthur H. Howell, Washington, D.C. 



An Attempt to Breed the Pine Grosbeak in Captivity. — The last 

 week in January, 1917, 1 heard of a small flock of Pine Grosbeaks or " Can- 

 ada Robins " as they are called locally, in a grove of red cedars about a mile 

 and a half from my home. The morning of January 28 with bright sun- 

 shine and thermometer hovering around zero, I took a bamboo fish pole 

 about eight feet long with a short stout piece of string and slip knot that 

 would hold open three or four inches and went fishing for them. I found 

 a flock of at least twenty-five Pine Grosbeaks all in the gray plumage and 

 about the same number of Evening Grosbeaks, the first ever noted here. 

 It was a beautiful sight to see half a dozen of each kind feeding on cedar 

 berries from the same branch. The Pine Grosbeaks were very tame, as is 

 usual when in this latitude, but I could only approach within about thirty 

 feet of the Evening Grosbeaks when they would go off in a startled whirl 

 like a bunch of English Sparrows. 



I soon secured three of the. Pine Grosbeaks, one of which was much 

 darker than the other two and I judged it to be a female. Returning home 

 I put them in a cage 24 x 18 x 12 inches which I placed in the living room. 

 The birds quickly became contented and in a few days would take hemp 

 seed from my hand or mouth. The second week in February the two 

 brighter colored birds began to sing a low sweet warbling song and at 

 other times kept up a pleasing conversation. 



Wishing to keep a pair, male and female, I sent one of the singing birds 

 to the Bronx Zoo where it died in a week or two and was dissected and 

 found to be a male. About the middle of June my singer dropped dead 

 from the perch one morning, and dissection proved it a female. The 

 remaining bird appeared lonesome and for about a week often made the 

 whistling call. The cage was then hung outside the kitchen window over 

 which a grapevine was growing, with a wide board over the top to keep 

 off the rain and within a few days the bird began singing with even more 

 vigor and vim than the others had shown. The first week in July I noticed 

 her hopping about the cage with bits of grass in her beak trying to fasten 

 them somewhere so I placed a wire bowl in an upper corner and put in 

 nesting material — shredded bark, sticks, grass and a few feathers, with 

 which she at once began to fill the bowl and within a week had formed a 

 very good nest. In this on July 9 she deposited an egg and by July 15 

 she had completed the clutch of four perfectly typical eggs. Being infertile 

 I had to add them to my collection. 



