FINCHES. 401 



is an inhabitant of the pine- woods of the northern regions of both the Eastern and 

 Western Hemispheres. A gorgeously-coloured bird in its adult plumage, the pine- 

 grosbeak seems to be remarkable for the variation in the time of the assumption 

 of this dress ; there being little doubt that cock-birds have bred while in their im- 

 mature plumage. The wings are of moderate length ; the tail being of medium 

 length, and distinctly forked ; while the feet are small, and the metatarsus does not 

 exceed the third toe in length. The sexes are easily distinguished by the crimson red 

 plumage of the adult male, although immature cocks cannot thus be distinguished. 

 Mr. Seebohm remarks that the summer home of the pine-grosbeak is in a very 

 picturesque country. " Almost all the forest districts of Siberia are hilly, and in 

 the north, as the trees become smaller, they are also more thinly scattered over the 

 ground, and the interminable extent of wood is broken by occasional flat, open 

 marshes, which become gay with flowers as soon as the snow melts. The scenery 

 is more park-like than farther south, and birds are much more plentiful and more 

 easily seen. The pine-grosbeaks arrive at their breeding-grounds in small flocks 

 in April, and continue to be gregarious until summer comes, when they disperse 

 for the purpose of building their nests. They appear to be somewhat shy and 

 retiring birds, because they do not frequent the roads like the bullfinches, the snow- 

 buntings, and the mealy redpolls. But this is by no means the case ; they confine 

 themselves principally to the woods where they are not difficult to approach, even 

 when the sportsman is obliged to hunt them in snow-shoes, six feet long, to support 

 his weight upon the untrodden surface. In the large pine-forests they prefer the 

 banks of the rivers or the outskirts of some open place, and may often escape 

 detection from the habit of frequenting the tops of the trees. Within the Arctic 

 Circle many of the trees are small, and on the hilly ground they are scattered in 

 small clumps, or sometimes in isolated trees, the drooping boughs of the spruce- 

 firs looking very graceful on the white snow. In places like these the pine-grosbeak 

 may often be seen perched conspicuously on the top of a spruce-fir, twenty or 

 thirty feet from the ground, but looking so much like the last spike of the tree as 

 frequently to escape notice. . . The call-note is a plaintive single note, somewhat 

 like that of our bullfinch, but incapable of being expressed on paper. The song is 

 very melodious, not very loud or long, but flute-like. When I first heard it, I 

 took it for the song of some rare Siberian thrush, and was quite disappointed when 

 I shot the bird to find it only a pine-grosbeak. The flight is undulating and 

 powerful. We found several nests which could only have belonged to birds of 

 this species, but our search for eggs was unsuccessful. The breeding-season is 

 said to be the end of May or beginning of June. The nests are generally placed 

 in a spruce-fir tree ten or twelve feet from the ground, on a thick branch close to 

 the main stem. The nest is made on the same model as that of the hawfinch and 

 bullfinch, but of coarser materials. The outside is a framework of slender fir 

 twigs ; and the inside, which projects above the outside, is composed of roots of 

 line grass, and a lichen which grows upon the branches of the trees, and might 

 easily be mistaken for hair. . . The number of eggs varies from three to four. . . 

 The ground-colour is pale greenish blue, boldly spotted, principally at the larger 

 end, with surface-spots varying from rich brown to almost black, and with under- 

 lying spots of greyer brown.'' The general colour of the adult male is rosy crimson, 

 VOL. in. 26 



