252 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina (W. Cooper) 

 Evening Grosbeak 



Plate 79 



Fringilla vespertina W. Cooper. Ann. Lye. N. H. N. Y. 1825. 1:220 

 Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 

 1910. p. 241. No. 514 



hesperiphona, Gr, soxspo?, at evening, tpwvT), voice; vespertina, of evening 



Description. Adult male: Forehead and streak over the eye, yellow; 

 crown blackish; rest of the head, neck and back deep olivaceous changing 

 to yellow on scapulars and rump; wings, tail and upper tail coverts black; 

 tertials white; the inner webs of the secondaries and inner webs of tail 

 feathers partially white. Adult female: Top of the head brownish gray; 

 body plumage light grayish, tinged with olive yellowish; throat bordered 

 with dusky on each side; greater wing coverts, edgings of secondaries, and 

 tail coverts, inner webs of tip of tail, and patch on the base of the primaries 

 white. Young: Similar to female but duller and more brownish. Lower 

 parts much paler. 



Length 7-8.5 inches; wing 4.2-4.5; tail 2.75-3.2; bill .8; depth of 

 bill at base .55-7. 



Distribution. The Evening grosbeak inhabits boreal North America, 

 breeding in western Alberta and the surrounding country; and winters 

 from southern Saskatchewan to Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, and irregularly 

 to New England, New York and Pennsylvania. When I began to study 

 the migration and distribution of New York birds, I supposed that only 

 one visitation of the Evening grosbeak had ever occurred in New York 

 State, namely, the great invasion of 1890, when these birds were found 

 in almost all the northeastern states in considerable abundance; but on 

 further investigation I find that it has occurred almost certainly on all 

 the following dates: 1875, 1882, 1886, 1887, 1889-1890, 1896, 1899, 1900, 

 1904, 1906, and another large visitation in 1910-1911. Thus this bird 

 must be considered as an occasional winter visitant in recent years, but 

 usually in very small numbers, especially when the seed crop in the north- 

 west has failed. 



Haunts and habits. With us it feeds on seeds and buds of the maple, 

 ash, mountain ash and various fruits which are left hanging on the trees. 

 This interesting species, which is related to the Hawfinch of Europe, is 



