200 PINE-GROSBEAK,. 
To Denmark the Pine-Grosbeak is only a rare winter-visitor, and 
its occurrences, even in the suitable conifer woods of North-eastern 
Germany, Silesia, and Poland, are irregular. Accepting the records 
without criticism, the bird has strayed at long intervals to Holland, 
Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Southern Germany ; while, prob- 
ably following the line of the mountain pine-woods, a solitary example 
appears to have crossed the Alps to the Trentino in the winter of 
1876. Its home is principally in the conifer region near the Arctic 
circle ; but sometimes, as at Pulmak in Lapland, it extends to the 
birch woods as far as 70° N. lat. ; while eastward, the bird is plenti- 
ful in Northern Russia, across Siberia to Kamchatka, and as far south 
as Lake Baikal; as a straggler it has also been obtained in the Kuril 
islands, to the north of Japan. In America it occurs throughout 
the Arctic and sub-Arctic forests, migrating southward in winter to 
California, Colorado and the northern portions of the Eastern States. 
For the first knowledge of the nesting and eggs of the Pine- 
Grosbeak, we are indebted—as in many other cases—to the 
researches of the late John Wolley, who discovered the breeding- 
haunts of this bird in Lapland. The nest, similar to that of the 
Bullfinch, consists externally of interlaced birch-twigs, with a lining 
of fine stiff grass, and is usually placed on the horizontal branches of 
a fir or a birch-tree, near the bole. The 4 eggs are deep greenish- 
blue, spotted with brownish-purple : measurements 1 in. by ‘72 in. 
The food consists partly of insects, but mainly of buds, birch-catkins, 
seeds and various berries. The song has been described as loud and 
flute-like ; the flight is undulating. 
The adult male has the feathers of the head, back and rump 
suffused with rich rose-red, upon a ground-colour of slate-grey ; 
wings ash-brown, with broad pinkish-white tips to both sets of wing- 
coverts, and white margins to the secondaries; tail dusky-brown ; 
under parts rose-red, turning to grey on the flanks and vent; bill 
dark brown, paler at the base of the lower mandible; legs blackish- 
brown. Length 8-25 in. ; wing 4°25 in. In the female the rose tint 
is replaced by a more or less golden-yellow, except on the back, which 
is slate-grey. The young have a greyish-green tinge. The late Mr. 
A. C. Chapman found a pair of birds breeding in this greyish-green 
plumage, the male having rather more of the yellow colour than the 
female ; another nest belonged to a couple of greyish-green birds ; 
while at a third nest a male in full rosy plumage was paired with an 
ash-grey female. 
Many authors have accepted the genus Praicola of Vieillot for this 
species. 
