1855.] 



COCCOTHKAUSTES VESPERTINA.— EVENING GROSBEAK. 



287 



the careful attention of ttose who are desirous of making this 

 branch of science a recreative study, the last edition (5th) of 

 Sir Charles Lyell's Elementary Geology, a work which is, un- 

 questionably, the most faithful exposition of the present condi- 

 tion of Geological Science now in print. 



Coceothraustes Vespertina.— Evening Grosbeak. 



BY THOMAS COTTLE, ESQ. 



A notice of the appearance of the Coceothraustes Yespertina 

 within the peninsular of Western Canada,— of which Bonaparte 

 says, " few birds could form a more interesting acquisition to 

 the Fauna of any country than this really fine Grosbeak," — is, 

 I think, of sufficient interest to the Ornithologist to merit a 

 place in the Canadian Journal: and would the Tai'ious 

 observers of nature in different parts of this Province note in 

 the same paper any varieties they may discover, either in the 

 animal or vegetable kingdoms, it would greatly aid the enquiries 

 into its Fauna and Flora. 



This bird was little known when the Prince of Musignano 

 wrote his supplement to Wilson's American Ornithology. He 

 says, " The specimen of the Evening Grosbeak presented to 

 the Lyceum of New York by Mr. Schoolcraft, (1823), from 

 which Mr. Cooper established the species, was thought, until 

 lately, to be the only one in the possession of civilized man ; 

 but we have since examined two shot early in the spring on 

 the Athabasca Lake, near the Rocky Mountains, and preserved 

 among the endless treasures of Mr. Leadbeater of London." 

 His description of the male is very correct, except that in the 

 four specimens I have examined, there was no white at all on 

 any of the tail feathers or on the quills, the three outer of 

 which he describes as being " inconspicuously tipped with 

 whitish." This might be the difference of age or the incom- 

 plete change from winter to summer plumage. The bill he 

 also describes as greenish yellow brighter on the margins, this 

 is the appearance in the dry state and detracts somewhat from 

 the beauty of the head, for when alive it is wholly of an apple 

 green. He also makes a great error in stating : — " No diflfer- 

 ence of any consequence is obsei'vable between the sexes, 

 though it might be said the female is a little less in size and 

 duller in plumage." He evidently had not seen a female, and 

 probably one of Leadbeater's birds, from which he says he took 

 his description, may have been a young male. The sexes dif- 

 fer as much as would naturally be expected in a bird of such 

 bright colours, as will be evident by a glance at the two speci- 

 mens accompanying this paper. I dissected four birds in the 

 yellow plumage and found them all males, and three in the 

 ash-coloured and found them all females, so there can be no 

 doubt of the plumage of the sexes. Dr. Richardson gives a 

 plate of this bird in his Northern Zoology, which is rather 

 over-coloured. 



I first discovered the Evening Grosbeak in a maple wood on 

 the 7th of May, they wei'o very numerous, the flock amounting 

 to at least fifty. The day was very cold for the time of year, 

 and in the evening it began ta snow, which lay on the ground 

 during the night; this day and the following they frequented 

 the same wood, since which I have not seen them. They were 

 by no moans shy, but on being fired at would fly a short dis- 

 tance and alight again, continually uttering a short monotonous 

 note. Those I killed were excessively fat, their craws and 

 stomachs were distended vith the seeds of the maple denuded 

 of the husk. 



Description of the Female. — Bill as in the male; irides black; 



head ash-colour, an indistinct yellowish band passes from the 

 shoulders round the hind part of the head ; back, ash, not quite 

 as dark as the head, and with a slight yellowish hue ; chin 

 white, bordered by a black line from the angles of the lower 

 bill ; belly, pale ash ; lesser wing coverts black with the excep- 

 tion of three or four nearest the back, the outer webs of which 

 are white, the under ones yellow ; the outer feathers of the 

 greater wing coverts white, the centre and tip broadly black, 

 those nearer the back black, at base and inner web, but the 

 upper half dark ash; the three first quills black, slightly 

 marked with white on the inside, the next four bared with 

 white, the inner webs edged with white ; tail coverts black 

 tipped with white ; tail feathers black, a large white space on 

 the inner web at the end. A yellowish tinge pervades aU those 

 parts of the plumage that are yellow in the male. 

 Woodstock, June, 1855. 



Ijulil-icatioii — Mineral Oil as a Lubricant for Macliincry^ 



It will be permitted by every one experienced in the working of 

 extensive steam or other machinery, that to obtain a good lubricating 

 material, possessing all the qualities which will i-ender it fit for general 

 useful application, and, above all, a certain degree of cheapness, is a 

 question of considerable difficult}', and often, indeed, one which the 

 practical engineer and machinest finds quite bej-ond his means of 

 solution. There can be no doubt that certain of the lubricants at 

 present in use possess a character which, considered in respect to 

 especial applications, places them almost out of the the reach of any 

 ordinary substitute ; but it must be remembered that these very 

 specialities render such substances unsuitable to general purposes ; 

 and it cannot be denied, that any material which is in itself capable of 

 such modifications in process of manufacture as will render it equally 

 suitable to the lubrication of a steam-engine or of the spindles of a 

 cotton-mill, to machinery working with either a high or low degi-ee of 

 speed, is a desideratum in every branch of industry in which mechani- 

 cal agency is emploj'ed. Such qualities as these are claimed for the 

 mineral oil, the chemical and physical properties of which wo propose 

 to bring under brief review. 



When we examine into the question of what the peculiar properties arc 

 which it is necessary that a good lubricant should possess, we find the 

 subject dividing itself into two parts — the one rel.ating to the chemi- 

 cal constitution of the lubricating agent, the other to its physical char- 

 acter. With regard to its chemical composition and behaviour, the 

 considerations that present themselves relate, first, to the .action of the 

 elements of the lubricating matter, directly or indirectlj% upon the 

 metal of which the machine is constructed; and, secondly, to the 

 changes which it may experience in its own constitution by exposure 

 to air or any other influence, as any change in its chemical character 

 produced under such circumstances would, in all probability, imme- 

 diately affect the question of its lubricating power. Perhaps, in nine- 

 tenths of the cases in which a lubricating medium is employed, at least 

 when the lubricant is in the fluid or semi-fluid state, all the parts of 

 the machinery are composed of metal, cither iron, or some form of 

 brass or gun-metal. From this circumstance, it must be at once 

 obvious that the chemical h.abitudes of the lubricating material towards 

 those metals is a consideration of importance, particularly when the 

 machinery is of a delicate character. It is a very well-known fact, 

 even to those who possess no knowledge of chemical principles or re- 

 actions, that when such metals as those named above are exposed to 

 the continued influence of the air, especially if moisture be present, 

 their surface undergoes a peculiar change from the action of tbo 

 oxygen contained in the atmosphere, with which substance most of 

 the metals can unite, their surface becoming abraded or destroyed as 

 the action progresses. This is termed oxidation. 



The power of oxygen to combine with mctallin surfaces is very 

 greatly enhanced by the presence of many chemical substances which 

 possess an aflinity for the oxide first formed ; in that case the pro- 

 duction of the oxide will be constantly renewed, and the wear or waste 

 of the metal will be commensurate with the rapidity with wliich this 

 chemical operation goes on. If, then, a substance possescil in the 

 liighcst and most perfect degree the physicul characters requisite in a 

 lubricating material, but were at the same time capable of ncliug iu 



