412 Evening Grosbeak 



note or scream, somewhat resembling that of the Waxwing, most com- 

 monly heard while the birds are feeding in a flock or sitting quietly 

 about among the branches of a tree. As spring advances all these 

 notes assume a softer or more mellow character and when a score or 

 more of the now richly vested Grosbeaks assemble in some leafy tree- 

 top and give vent in unison to their joyous feelings there results an 

 unbroken medley of whistles and trills unique in bird-music. Satis- 

 fied as the birds appear with their effort there is no particular melody 

 about the performance which can be compared quite accurately with 

 the chorus produced by a lot of frogs piping in a woodland marsh of 

 a summer evening. While feeding the birds c«re either silent or utter 

 the above notes in a quiet, subdued undertone. 



The nest and eggs of the eastern form of the Evening Grosbeak 

 are still little known and indeed the exact region to which it retreats in 

 the nesting season is not clearly defined. "•= It is probably somewhere 

 in the vast boreal regions to the west of Hudson Bay. Several nests 

 of the western subspecies (Ilesperiphona vespcrtina montana) which 

 breeds at high altitudes in the Cascade, Sierra Nevada and Rocky 

 Mountains as far south as Arizona and New Mexico have been found 

 and as they would in all probability be indistinguishable from those 

 of the eastern form, a brief description of them will serve to indicate 

 the manner of nidification of the species as a whole. The first pub- 

 lished account was of a nest found by Mr. B. H. Fiske in Yolo county, 

 California, and described by Mr. Walter E. Bryant in a paper before 

 the California Academy of Science on June 20, 1887. "The nest, con- 

 taining four eggs, was taken May 10, 1886, but incubation was so far 

 advanced that he was unable to preserve them. In general shape, 

 color and markings, they were similar to eggs of the Black-headed 

 Grosbeak, but in size he thinks they were somewhat larger." 



"The nest was built in a small live oak, at a height of ten feet, 

 and was a more pretentious structure than is usually built by the 

 Black-headed Grosbeak, being composed of small twigs supporting a 

 thin layer of fibrous bark, and a lining of horse hair."* On June 5, 

 1884, Mr. John Swinburne of Springerviile, Arizona, found a nest of 

 the Evening Grosbeak in a thickly wooded canyon some fifteen miles 

 west of "that town. "The nest was a comparatively slight structure, 

 rather flat in shape, composed of small sticks and roots, lined with 

 finer portions of the latter. The eggs, three in number, were of a 

 clear, greenish ground color, blotched with pale brown. They were 

 fresh. The nest was placed about fifteen feet from the ground in 

 the extreme top of a thick willow bush." This was at an altitude of 

 7,000 feet. This was probably the first Tiest of this species ever found 

 by an ornithologist but it was not reported until after the California 

 nest.* Others have since been found and Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey 



* In the Auk, Vol. XXVI, Oct. 1909, pp. 390-400, is an article by Sidney 

 S. S. Stansell entitled "Birds of Central Alberta." in which is the following 

 note in regard to the Evening Grosbeak : "Quite rare, I located a nest in 

 June, 1908, which contained a dead full-fledged young male. The nest was 

 up 40 feet in a white birch tree." 



♦Bull. Cal Acad. Sci., II, 1887; J. P. Norris, O. & O., XII, No 9, Sept. 

 '87, 144. 



* Auk. V. Jan., 1888, 113-114. 



