72 CouEs's History of tlie Evening Grosbeak. 



" strangely ejaculatory as well as harshly piping," and thus scarcely 

 to be considered musical ; still, the birds seemed to be fond of such 

 performances, and occupied much of their leisure in practising both 

 as soloists and as choristers. The writer adds that his female spe- 

 cimens usually showed whitish edgings of the inner webs of the tail- 

 feathers, apparently overlooked by some of our standard authorities. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper has recorded the Evening Grosbeak as a com- 

 mon resident of the forests of Washington Territory, where the 

 bird's habit of keeping in the summits of the tall trees screened him 

 to a degree from observation. In January, 1854, he obtained sev- 

 eral specimens from a flock that had descended during a snow-storm 

 to some bushes about Vancouver ; and he subsequently observed it 

 flying high among poplai'-trees, or feeding upon the seeds, and 

 uttering a loud, shrill call-note. In later years he was enabled to 

 make further observations in various portions of California. Thus, 

 he speaks of one flock of about a dozen individuals which wintered 

 near Santa Cruz, remaining until the end of April. " Their favorite 

 resort was a small grove of alders and willows, close to the town, 

 where their loud call-note could be heard at all hours of the day, 

 though I never heard them sing. AYhen the herbage began to grow 

 in spring, their favorite food was the young leaves of various annual 

 weeds that sprouted up under the shade of the trees. They then 

 fed on the buds of the ' box-elder ' {Negundo), and fi-equented the 

 large pear-trees in the old mission garden, probably to eat their buds. 

 They were generally very tame, allowing an approach to within a 

 few yards of them when feeding." 



The annual movements of the Evening Grosbeak within the area 

 of its usual dispersion have not been well determined. It is a 

 migratory bird in one sense, but does not appear to be subjected 

 to the impulse of migration with periodical regularity, as a strict 

 and proper migrant should be. It is certainly able to endure a 

 very rigorous climate, for its presence during the most inclement 

 weather of winter along our Northern border, and even in British 

 America, is sufficiently attested Thus it appears, from Captain 

 Blakiston's article in the " Ibis," that the Evening Grosbeak occurs 

 in the inhospitable region of the Saskatchewan between the months 

 of November and April, when birds of this kind were seen feeding 

 on the ash-leaved maples in company with the very boreal Pine 

 Grosbeaks. Mr. Tiffany's note, already quoted, shows that they 

 endure a Minnesota winter, which is not a thing to be lightly dis- 



