70 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



bluish-gray pink, and the feet of a grayish-pink color. 



Later I found that the birds fed on the berries of 

 the poison ivy, red cedar, climbing bittersweet, and 

 the buds and embryo needles of the pitch pine, 

 together with the seeds of the box elder. The favorite 

 food of the flock that I watched seemed always to 

 be the pits of the wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) . 

 They would take the pits well out of sight back into 

 their beaks, keeping their bills half open in a comical 

 manner, as if they had a bone in the throat. A 

 second later there would be a cracking noise and out 

 would drop two nicely split segments of the cherry 

 pits, the meat having been swallowed. Sometimes 

 in the trees they would sidle along the limbs exactly 

 as a parrot does along its perch. 



The authorities state that the evening grosbeak 

 has no immature plumage, but passes after its first 

 moulting immediately into full plumage. I saw one, 

 however, that I am sure was in immature plumage. 

 The back was yellowish instead of being gray, like 

 the females', and the wings were of a dirty white 

 color instead of being mottled black and white, like 

 the plumage of the females, or half black and half 

 white, like the plumage of the males. Both sexes 

 seemed to have the same call and gave it equally 

 often. 



The history of the evening grosbeak illustrates 

 the far-reaching and never-ending consequences of a 

 falsehood. This bit of moralizing is called forth be- 

 cause of the name of this sorely misdescribed bird. 

 In three languages, English, Greek and Latin, the 



