SOME CAGED PINE GROSBEAKS. 



THE pine grosbeak comes down from the North only in 

 winter, and seldom goes far south of New England; but a 

 little account of a pair that I held captive for a time, may 

 give some hints of what can be learned from watching a 

 caged bird. 



On those winters when food is scarce in the north the pine 

 grosbeaks come south in large flocks to eat the berries of the 

 mountain ash and black alder and the buds of maple, ash, and 

 pine trees. Our first notice of their coming is hearing their 

 wild, sweet whistle overhead, or seeing the ground strewn 

 with the scales of leaf -buds, which they drop in feeding. 

 They are the largest of our tamer winter birds, and look like 

 a magnified sparrow, being about the size of a robin and more 

 heavily built. Though they vary in color, from gray with a 

 yellow rump and crown in the female and young, to a rosy red 

 all over in the adult male, all ages and sexes have two broad 

 white wing-bars which give an easy mark of identification. 



During the great flights of grosbeaks in 1897, four were 

 brought me alive, and for a few hours all were put into one 

 cage. In this interval one of them lost all the long quills 

 from both wings, either by self-injury or by malice on the part 

 of the others. The poor fellow could not fly, and his wings 

 needed attention, so it was decided to keep him and one com- 

 panion, and to release the others. The birds were so near 

 alike in color that the sexes could not be distinguished, but 

 the gentlest tempered bird was selected to remain with this 

 one, which, by his determined resistance, his fierce biting, and 

 his loud snapping of the bill, was supposed to be a male. 



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