54 



THE OOLOGIST 



could not tell whether there were any 

 adults or not. 



On January 11th I found eight feed- 

 ing in a large maple and as it was a 

 sunny afternoon I soon saw that one 

 was a fine red male. A shot secured 

 it. On January 23d while fox hunting 

 I found the feeding ground that I had 

 been looking for all winter. It was a 

 grove of Ash at the base of a steep 

 and heavily timbered mountain. About 

 seventy-five birds were scattered about 

 feeding, and the snow was covered 

 with their cuttings. But as the day 

 was snowy and stormy I could tell 

 nothing about their color, and as it 

 was a couple of nice red fellows 1 

 wanted for my collection, I went away 

 and left them. 



Next morning, the 24th, was the 

 coldest of the winter. At eight o'clock 

 it was still 20 degrees below zero on 

 my porch and bitter cold, but as it 

 was clear I started. An hour and a 

 half of hard walking through the deep 

 snow and I had arrived at the feeding 

 ground. The trees were covered with 

 frost and I was often startled by the 

 sharp pistol-like reports from the 

 timber. It was much colder up there 

 in the woods than in town and I was 

 kept busy while there, keeping my 

 fingers, face and feet warm. There 

 must have been fully one hundred 

 Grosbeaks there though and I could 

 scarcly see the red fellows. After 

 sizing them up I picked out two beauti- 

 ful red ones and secured them in per- 

 fect shape. I then spent over two 

 hours in watching them. I had to keep 

 moving most of the time and finally 

 got so chilled that I had to get a move 

 on to keep from freezing. 



All the time I was there there were 

 always plenty of birds feeding. When 

 feeding they were quiet and sat in 

 one place as long as they could reach 

 seed. Those not feeding were noisy 

 and restless and were constantly call- 



ing. Flocks were coming and going 

 all the time. Some flocks would come 

 around the mountain side while others 

 would plunge straight down from the 

 top of the mountain. Before starting 

 to feed the flocks would almost always 

 first alight in some big hemlock or 

 hardwood and in a few moments drop 

 into the Ash. On the tall dead hem- 

 locks and large living ones little flocks 

 would alight and every now and then 

 one would sing. Couldn't tell whether 

 or not just the red ones did the sing- 

 ing. About one out of twelve or fif- 

 teen was a fine red one so the pro- 

 portion of adults was small. 



While visiting with the Gros Beaks 

 I saw some very large flocks of Ameri- 

 can and White-winged Crossbills but 

 these always alighted in the hemlock 

 and fed on the small cones. I was 

 very much surprised to see one little 

 bunch of four or five Crimson Finches 

 come into the Ash and feed with the 

 Grosbeaks. 



I would like to have spent the day 

 with them as I will probably never 

 have such another chance, at least in 

 this region, but it was so cold that 

 when I did finally leave I had to plough 

 along at top speed for a long ways be- 

 fore the blood got to circulating right 

 and then I was half frozen when I 

 finally reached home. 



February 1st a flock of nine birds 

 were still about the ash but a visit 

 ten days later revealed no trace of 

 them and I have not seen any since. 

 R. B. Simpson. 

 Warren, Penna. 



Notes from Alberta, Canada. t- 



To the writer's knowledge THE 

 OOLOGIST has never been favored 

 with any notes from this part of the 

 country, so I will endeavor to give a 

 few for the benefit of its readers. 



On May 28th, 1913, a party of four 

 composed of the writer and three 



