THE EVENING GROSBEAK. 35 



No. 14. 



EVENING GROSBEAK. 



A. O. U. No. 514. Hesperiphona vespertina (Coop.). 



Description.— ^dw/i male: Forehead clear yellow; crown black; remaining 

 fore-parts sooty-olive, shading insensibly through the dull yellow of lower back 

 and belly into clear yellow ot under tail-coverts: wings and tail black; a large 

 white blotch formed by ends of inner secondaries and their coverts. Adult female ■ 

 "with prevailing color ashy or only slightly brownish-gray" (Ridgw.). A small, 

 clear white patch at 'base of inner primaries ; white blotches on tips of upper tail- 

 coverts and inner webs of tail-feathers, in varying proportions. Bill, in both 

 sexes, massive, yellow. Length about 8.00 (203.2); wing 4.40 (111.8); tail 

 3.42 (86.9) ; bill along culmen .75 (19.1) ; depth of bill .s6-.6s (14.2-16.5).' No 

 appreciable difiference in size between the sexes. 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size ; large, conical bill ; olive-brown colora- 

 tion with black and white in masses. 



Nesting. — ^Does not breed in Ohio. Nest principally composed of fine root- 

 lets with some Usnea moss and a few sticks, settled upon horizontal branch of pine 

 or fir, near tip, and at considerable heights. Bggs, 4, "in color, size, form, texture 

 and markings indistinguishable from those of the Red-winged Blackbird" (Birt- 

 well) . 



General Range. — "Interior of British America, southward in winter to the 

 upper Mississippi Valley and basin of the Great Eakes" (Ridgway). Of sporadic 

 occurrence in New England. 



Range in Ohio. — Of rare and casual occurrence in winter only. 



FEW birds have so thoroughly piqued the curiosity of the man of science 

 or have so long resisted his insistent inquisitiveness as has this big-billed, un- 

 canny bird of the mountains. His comings and goings know little law and his 

 geographical route is not yet clearly defined. A screaming company of them 

 may graciously pitch camp in John Smith's orchard in, say, Wisconsin, and 

 they may spend the winter there if Mr. Smith lets them ; but the diary of many 

 an ambitious explorer in the north and west fails to contain the coveted record 

 of his appearance. 



It remained for Mr. Francis J. Birtwell, in the summer of 190 1, to dis- 

 cover the nests of this long-sought bird. This singularly gifted and promising 

 young ornithologist was spending a honeymoon with his bride, in the moun- 

 tains of New Mexico. He was scarcely over the first elation of success at dis- 

 covering a colony of breeding Grosbeaks when he lost his life in an attempt to 

 reach a nest placed sixty-five feet high in a giant pine. 



The Evening Grosbeak is seen only in winter or early spring at the lower 

 latitudes and altitudes. The birds are strictly gregarious at this season and 

 spend their time closely and rather stupidly feeding upon fallen maple and ash 



