FAMILY Fringillidse. 



buildings, built mostly of grasses and twigs. Egg, blue- 

 white or pale greenish blue. In the old world this species 

 winters in southern Europe or crosses the Mediterranean 

 to northern Africa. 



The Starling is scarcely a singer, his notes are an inde- 

 scribable jumble of mixed tones including a few sweet whis- 

 tles. There is the twang of the jews'-harp, the squeak of 

 a rusty gate-hinge, the cluck of the hen, and the rattle of a 

 wire spring in his tones one can scarcely call them tunes! 

 But frequently he indulges in a few short and sweet whis- 

 tles. It would be useless to attempt any musical notations 

 of such a voice as distinct intervals are quite lacking. I 

 quote W. H. Hudson's admirable description of the Star- 

 ling's spring efforts. "His merit lies less in the quality of 

 the sounds he utters than in their endless variety. In a 

 leisurely way he will sometimes ramble on for an hour, 

 whistling and warbling very agreeably, mingling his finer 

 notes with chatterings, duckings, squealings, and sounds 

 as of snapping the fingers and of kissing, with many others 

 quite indescribable." The fact is, the Starling is a polyglot 

 but not a mimic. What he has to say is all his own, and 

 the rest of us can not match a word of it with anything we 

 know. Being English, his song is a possible rendering of 

 Thomson's " Come gentle spring " ; but to the American ear 

 his tongue is hopelessly twisted, which affliction may be 

 due in part to the violence of the American spring. Would 

 anyone venture to question that possibility? 



Family FringiUida:. 



Evening The Evening Grosbeak is a boreal species 



Grosbeak whose winter visitations in the northerly 



vespertino** States (especially of the Mississippi Valley) 

 L. 7.80 inches are irregular but inevitably recurrent along 

 winter w ith plentiful seed crops. Mr. Eaton reports 



large migrations in the years 1875, '82, '86, '89, '90, '96, '99, 

 1900, '04, '06, '10, '11. In the winter of 1919 Mr. Forbush 

 reported the bird unusually plentiful in every county of 

 the mainland in Massachusetts. The colors are quite 

 distinguished, and in a measure' like the White-winged 

 Crossbill suggest the Canary. Forehead and a bar above 

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