QA General Notes. [January 



during the latter part of this same month of November I succeeded, by the 

 same means, in securing a magnificent old male, he being in full 

 autumnal plumage when taken, and his wound a tip on the wing with a 

 single dust-shot. My delight can be well imagined, as I marched home 

 with him and introduced his lordship to my first pet, who now seemed as 

 happy as a lark in her open cage formed by the capacious window-recess 

 with a goodly pine branch stretched across it. Soon it was to be seen 

 which of the pair was to be 'cock of the walk,' and the male bird as- 

 sumed the position, becoming master of the situation with no little dis- 

 play of tyranny, I thought. Towards myself, however, he was quite as 

 gentle as his amiable mate, for he soon allowed me to hold him in my 

 hand and stroke his pretty head with my finger. They soon came to be 

 very fond of hemp-seed, and they frequently bathed with evident relish 

 in a shallow dish of water placed at their disposal. During January of the 

 following year, a freezing cold month, they were brought by me in a 

 small cage of my own construction to Washington ; the journey proved 

 to be epiite as eventful for the birds as it was for their owner. But thev 

 accommodated themselves marvelously well to the varying circumstances, 

 and the first thing I did upon bringing them into their eastern home 

 was to place the pair in a new and commodious cage. 



When it came round to March a noteworthy change came over their 

 night habits, for up to that date the pair invariably roosted together, 

 with their heads under their wings, all night long. But during the early 

 part of March the male only kept his perch, sleeping away, while the 

 female bird nearly the entire night incessantly hopped from perch to 

 perch in a restless, uneasy manner. This she persisted in for about a 

 week, when she in turn kept quiet, and then it was the male, who had his 

 week of nights devoted to the same performance. 



It looked almost as if the migrating instinct were so strong in them that 

 they had to give vent to it in some way or other, and this extraordinary 

 behavior were the outcome of it. They were now in full feather, and 

 thoroughly reconciled to their quarters; they ate heartily of any of the 

 smaller, sweet seeds, such as apple, maple, hemp, and others, and so were 

 fat and in good condition. Even when the thermometer was down to 

 32° F. thev would bathe, this too, when the cage was hanging outside 

 ray window; the male in all such matters invariably serving himself first, 

 driving off his patient partner with a loud, sharp snapping of his bill, and 

 a few, plainly to be understood, threatening notes. Neither of these birds, 

 however, for the entire time they have been in mv possession (within a 

 few davs of a vear now) has ever given vent to anything that might be 

 considered a song. Both utter a kind of screech-whistle, not unlike one 

 of the notes of the English Sparrow, and. indeed, it is usually called forth 

 by one or more of those birds shuieking in their usual way in the 

 neighborhood. Other birds, though, will also excite them when they 

 come near the cage, and my Grosbeaks will frantically skip from perch to 

 perch, and the peculiar note to which I refer may be heard for some con- 

 siderable distance away. At other times they have a low, plaintive note 



