Evening Grosbeak 411 



practice is indulged in. I have seen them apparently feeding among 

 the buds of trees and in spring among the catkins of various trees, 

 but examination showed that they had not eaten either. When thus 

 engaged they may be in search of insect food in some form. 



In years gone by there was usually in the spring time a goodly 

 assemblage of Evening Grosbeaks in the sugar maple grove on upper 

 Nicollet Island between east and west Minneapolis, where it was an 

 easy matter to keep in daily touch with them and here many of the 

 observations forming the basis of this article were made by the writer 

 and his father. They still resort occasionally to this ancient trysting 

 place in spite of the encroachments of a big and noisy city. The 

 commonly observed fact that this bird is found so frequently about 

 the streets and yards of cities and towns is probably not due to any 

 particular desire for the company of man, but rather to the circum- 

 stance that box elder and hackberry trees have been planted so uni- 

 versally of late years as shade trees, that a supply of food is there 

 offered of which their fearless and unsuspicious nature enables them 

 to unhesitatingly avail themselves. So tame are they that they feed 

 without the least fear about the very doorsteps and porches of dwell- 

 ings and will remain unconcernedly among the lower branches of 

 small trees when approached within a few feet. Indeed they may 

 even be encouraged in the wild state to feed from the hand or alight 

 upon the person as entertainingly narrated by Mr. Wm. Rogers Lord 

 in an illustrated article in Bird Lore for January-February, 1902, and 

 when captured become quickly reconciled to confinement and make 

 very docile and entertaining pets.* 



The Evening Grosbeak has, while with us at least, nothing that 

 may be dignified by the name of song. Butler in his Birds of Indiana 

 states that towards spring they have a "rambling, jerky warble, begin- 

 ning low, suddenly increasing in power, and as suddenly ceasing, as 

 though the singer were out of breath;" but in a long experience I have 

 never heard any such song nor can I find any other reference to it 

 so conclude it must be of very infrequent occurrence.* 



Its usual utterance is an unmistakable, loud and forcible whistle 

 or pipe, sometimes rather shrill and rasping, at other times almost 

 bell-like in quality. It is possessed by both male and female alike 

 and is heard as the birds call to one another from their various sta- 

 tions in the tree-tops or as they pass overhead in their erratic and 

 undulatory but rapid flight. They have also a weak, short, "beaded" 



* Shufeldt, Notes upon Coccothraustes vespertina as a Cage bird. Auk, 

 VII, 1890, 93-95; Butler, Auk. X, 1893, 156-157. 



* Since writing- llie above I have come upon the fallowing by C. L. 

 Herrick in his article on the Evening Grosbeak in the Bull, of the Scientific 

 Laboratories of Dennison University, Granville, Ohio, 1885: "In spring, 

 upon the approach of the breeding season, the males cultivate the muses in 

 an odd but not displeasing little song. This song consists of several suc- 

 cessive repetitions of a short warble, followed by a similar strain closing 

 with a shrill cry, like tho finale of a black-bird's song. The phrase which 

 makes up the body of the song is musical, but is so abruptly terminated 

 ras though from lack of breath or of ability.) that it is annoying when 

 heard singly, for one is subjected to much the same nervous expectancy felt 

 in listening to a hen's cackle when quite leisurely "working up the agony" 

 sufficiently to sound the final note. A flock of a dozen or more singing to- 

 gether produce a very musical effect." 



