SONG-BIEDS. Pine Grosbeak 



FAMILY FRINGILLID^E: FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROS- 

 BEAKS, ETC. 



Pine Grosbeak: Pinicola enucleator. 



PLATE 26. FIG. 1. 



Length : 9.10 inches. 



Male : Heavy bill, giving it almost the appearance of a Parrot. Above 

 general colour strawberry-red, with some gray fleckings, deep- 

 est on head and rump. Wings and tail brown ; some feathers 

 edged with lighter brown and some with white. Below paler 

 red, turning to grayish green on belly. Bill and feet blackish. 



Female : Ash-brown, with yellowish bronze wash on rump, head, and 

 breast. 



Song : " A subdued, rattling warble broken by whistling notes." 



Season: A winter visitor whose appearance is as irregular as the 

 length of its stay. 



Breeds : Far north in evergreen woods ; also casually in Maine, New 

 Hampshire, and Vermont, but mainly north of the United 

 States. 



Nest : Saddled on a branch or in a crotch. Twigs, roots, and fibres 

 below, with a soft upper section. 



Eggs : 4, a greenish blue ground with dark brown spots. 



This finely coloured Grosbeak comes to us only in win- 

 ter, and can be easily identified at a season when such 

 brilliant birds are rare. It is a resident of northern New 

 England, and, however much it may wander about in the 

 more southern states, it can only be regarded as an irregular 

 and capricious migrant. 



The song of this species is said to be very attractive, but 

 is of course seldom heard so far away from the breeding- 

 haunts. Mr. Bicknell calls it a subdued, rattling warble, 

 which is sometimes heard as early as February and March, 

 and Dr. Coues calls the birds fine musicians. They come 

 in pairs or in flocks, and as the young males do not attain 

 their strawberry-coloured feathers until the second year, 

 and the females are a brownish yellow, the proportion of 

 red birds in these flocks is quite small. 



Severely cold winters and strong gales seem to blow them 

 down to us ; a number appeared here in the snowy season 

 of 1892-93, while in the open winter of 1893-94 I did not 

 133 



