74 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Solomon says Evening Grosbeaks fly East- 

 ward—And They Fly. 



The past winter will be ieiiieiul)ered 

 for ,-ome time Ijy ornithologists of the 

 Easuirn States as one in which the 

 Evening Grosbeak flew well beyond its 

 bounds and made itself known in the 

 East. 



This bird" is a bird of Western North 

 America, being most common between 

 the Rocky Mountains and the Pacilic 

 Coast: It moves irregularly eastward 

 in winter to Michigan, Wisconsin and 

 Illinois, but this past winter reports of 

 its being taken in many parts of New 

 England and the East are common. 



Following are a few instances sent 

 us: — 



The Evening (irosbeak has been 

 cdannon about here this winter. They 

 seem to have been driven east by the 

 strong gales we have had latel3^ 



In the early part of the winter I came 

 aL'ross a flock of about 80, picking the 

 seeds out of decayed apples still on the 

 trees. Would like to kncnv whether 

 any Evening Grosbeaks have been 

 observed in unusual parts in the East. 

 G. Leslie, 

 Hamilton, Out., Can. 



On the 22nd of January my brother 

 shot two Evening Grosbeaks on our 

 gnnuids, a male and a female both in 

 very flue plumage, and on the 28th of 

 February I shot another, a female 

 within a few feet of where the (Others 

 were shot. Their stomachs all contain- 

 ed the kernel of the seed of the wild 

 cherry. Four others were taken and 

 several more seen in February in the 

 city 



F. H. Fakley, 

 8t. Thomas, Ont. 



"I have received a tine pair of Even- 

 ing Grosbeaks — the flrst 1 have ever 

 seen in Vermont. 



S. O. Brush, 

 Chittenden Co., Vt. 



On Feb. 11, 1890, whiltj in Jordan, N. 

 Y., a bird lighted in a tree nearly ovei-*; 

 my head, which on second glancie prov- 

 ed to be a female Evening Grosbeak 

 {Coccothansics vespertina). Luck was 

 against me though, f(n' before I could 

 get a shotgun the ))us with bells on the 

 horses went lumbering along and my 

 bird (so the boy said that was watching 

 her) flew toward the "Other Side of 

 Jordan" and in a three-hour's search, I 

 failed to And her; b'ut as there are lots 

 of large Spruce trees in the village she 

 might easilj' have escaped my observa- 

 tion. I have skins in my cabinet of 

 (male and female) of this species and 

 am positive as to the identity. 



E. G. Tabor, 

 Cayuga Co., N. Y. 



Cowbird Sitting on Eggs. 



In reply to R. C. Alexander's query 

 in March Oologist, I wdl relate an 

 incident in the life of a "Parasite," a.s. 

 the Cowbird is often called. 



One bright, warm and summer day 

 of 1889, I had taken my collecting bo.x 

 and gun (for it was unsafe to go into 

 the thicket to which I was bound, with- 

 out a gun on account of the large 

 population of that dread to every body 

 — MepliiLis mep/iitica) and had proceed ■ 

 ed aljout half way through this dense 

 20-acre thicket, when my attention was 

 attracted by the cries of some small 

 bird. I proceeded very slowly and 

 carefully, determined to And out the 

 cause of this uproar. I had not pro- 

 ceeded very far,, when, as I apiDroached 

 a clump of blackberry vines, I saw 

 some small bird dart aw;iy in the 

 woods. 



Searching thi-ough this clump of vines 

 I saw a Cowbird sitting upon on a nest 

 in a small bush. Here, then was the 

 solution as to what undoubtably caused 

 the uproar, for it was jjrobably the nest 

 of this small bird upon which the Cow- 

 bird was sitting. The Cowbird flew ott' 

 as soon as I approached the nest. It 



