Notes from Field and Study 



I8l 



Johnsbury, Vermont, hoping there will be 

 other accounts of them in the next issue of 



UlRD-LoKK. 



On the morning of January 20, 1 saw a 

 pair of Evening (Jrosbeaks feeding in an 

 ash-leaved maple. The birds enjoyed a 

 long breakfast hour in this tree, and I was 

 able to spread the news of their arrival to 

 other bird-lovers in town, several of whom 

 went to see them. The next two days the 

 pair were in the ash-leaved maples in that 

 same place each morning or noon. Not 

 passing the trees at the usual time on the 

 23rd, I did not see the birds at all that day, 

 but on the 24th, at noon, the female was 

 again eating in the favorite tree. 



We tried to trace the movements of these 

 birds through the bird-students who co- 

 operate with the Museum in making bird- 

 observations, but they seemed to be seen 

 only when feeding in that locality. At a 

 farm about five miles north of our village, 

 some birds were reported to us as being 

 "different from anything seen before" and 

 from the description added we think they 

 were a small flock of Evening Grosbeaks. 



This pair apparently reported the 

 supply of food to others of their kind for 

 after a little over two weeks — on February 

 10, a flock of ten to twelve were feeding in 

 this same group of box elders when I 

 passed at noon. The males in the noon- 

 day winter sunshine were most beautiful. 

 — Mabel A. Shields, Assistant, The 

 Fairbanks Museum of National Service, at 

 St. Johnsburg, Vt. 



Evening Grosbeak at Exeter, N. H. 



Evening Grosbeaks have been observed 

 in this town every two or three years in 

 small flocks, I have been told on good 

 authority, but it has never been my good 

 fortune to see any until the morning of 

 April 3. I was attracted by the unfamiliar 

 sound of their call-notes, a sort of metallic 

 klink, and saw a flock of nine or ten. There 

 were two or three males in brilliant plum- 

 age among the number and about as man}' 

 with considerable yellow. The rest were 

 evidently females. 



Again on the iilli I saw in the same 



])lacc what I took to be the same flock, 

 and ol)scr\ed them for some time. At this 

 time there was audible a tine singing as if 

 one or more of them were amusing them- 

 selves with a "whisper song," but I could 

 not positively trace the sound to any one 

 of these beautiful birds. I am, however, 

 quite confident that it was the singing of 

 the Grosbeaks that I heard, for there were 

 no other birds near. Besides this, the 

 singing was not like that of any of our 

 native birds. 



During this winter and last a Pileated 

 Woodpecker has spent his time in town. 

 Last winter a Kingfisher remained through 

 the whole season. — George H. Selleck, 

 Exeter, N. H. 



Evening Grosbeak at Meriden, N. H. 



We now (March 18, 1916) have a flock 

 of over fifty Evening Grosbeaks feeding 

 in the dooryards around the village, and 

 their loud call-notes may be heard at all 

 times throughout the day. 



They have been here since early in 

 February — only a few at first but gradually 

 increasing in numbers. Some of them even 

 enter the houses when a window is left 

 open, with seed placed inside, and one of 

 them fell into a waste-paper basket during 

 a fight, when it was captured and 'banded.' 



They have been reported from Hanover, 

 N. H., Wells River and Hartland, Vt. 



Early in March I saw one Horned Lark 

 in a company of about fifteen Snow Bun- 

 tings. They have also been seen in Han- 

 over, N. H. — W. M. BuswELL, Meriden, 

 N. H. 



The Evening Grosbeak at Williamstown, 

 Mass. 



The people in Berkshire County, Mass., 

 had a rare opportunity to see a flock of 

 P^vening Grosbeaks, March 19. The 

 younger bird-lovers had never seen them 

 here, and the older ones look back over 

 about twenty-five years to any previous 

 visit of these beautiful birds. The winter 

 here has been long and very severe with 

 a greater snowfall then in any previous 



