484 Canadian Record of Science 



Esplanade Avenue in the city and at Ste. Anne de Belle- 

 vue about April 22nd. 



In the April number of Bird Lore, the organ of the 

 Audubon Society, are given reports on the visit of the 

 Grosbeaks to various localities across the border, as 

 Saratoga Springs, Poughkeepsie, Glen's Falls, Boston, 

 Lexington, etc. The observer in the last mentioned 

 place, Winsor M. Tyler, M.D., gives an account of its 

 eating habits, which is of sufficient interest to quote : 



"Having detached it (the seed) from the stem, (to do 

 this the bird merely leans downward and pulls off the 

 husk and its wing) the Grosbeak cuts through the husk 

 as far as the kernel and allows the wing to drop to the 

 ground; this it does with a fluttering motion suggestive 

 of a small moth. The remainder, the whole kernel and 

 perhaps two-thirds of the husk, the Grosbeak mumbles 

 in his bill, and in an incredibly short time discards from 

 the sides of his beak the more or less macerated remains 

 of the husk. Some of these particles fall to the ground, 

 some cling for a time to the beak. The bird swallows 

 the kernel. Upon examining the wings which the birds 

 have clipped off, it was apparent that the birds had 

 bitten directly over the kernel itself at a point rather 

 nearer the wing than the centre of the kernel. But, 

 althought by this incision the kernel was exposed, it was 

 never severed and allowed to fall with the wing, as 

 would have been the case had the beak been closed and 

 the bite completed. The cutting process was always 

 arrested at the point after the casing had been divided, 

 and before the meat had been severed. All this, although 

 the process involved the nicest precision, was accomplish- 

 ed with great rapidity, — the wing fluttering to the 

 ground within a second or two after . the fruit was 

 plucked from the stem. ' ' 



The seeds referred to are of the Manitoba maple and 

 are apparently the Grosbeak's first choice for food. 

 Wherever this tree has been planted in our streets there 

 the birds were first seen. They seldom left before the 



