THE NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 12/ 



in Garfield Park, Chicago, where they were feeding upon the 

 keys of the box elder. Mr. E. W. Nelson says :* "The winter 

 of 1871 they were quite common throughout the northern por- 

 tion of the state. The following winter they were much rarer, 

 and since then but very few have been seen. I am told' that for- 

 merly, it was of much more regular occurrence." The following 

 records of the occurrence of this species within our limits I take 

 form Mr. Amos W. Butle'r's report on "The Birds of Indiana" :t 

 "Five specimens were shot by Mr. H. K. Coale at Whiting, In- 

 diana, on December 20, 1883. Two females were taken near 

 Lake George, Indiana, December 5, 1886, which are now in the 

 collection of Mr. G. Fream Morcom, San Diego, California. In 

 Mr. Morcom's collection I (Mr. Butler) saw six males and two 

 females, marked Berry Lake, Indiana, April 3, 1887 ; also four 

 females from the same locality, April 18, 1887, and a male and 

 female, dated May 10, 1887. Mr. R. Turtle, a taxidermist of 

 Chicago, showed me (Mr. Butler) a number of these birds, of 

 which he said he killed ten, May 8, 1887, at Berry Lake, Indiana, 

 and thirteen May 10, at Whiting. The latest record I have of 

 its occurrence in spring is May 13, 1887, when it was found in 

 Lake County, Indiana. Mr. L. T. Meyer reported them from 

 Whiting, Lake County, Indiana, in January and February, 1890." 

 Mr. H. K. Coale has furnished me with the following interesting 

 record: "On February 11, 1887, Mr. E. A. Colby shot twelve 

 Evening Grosbeaks in Chicago which he presented to me in the 

 flesh. Fie also saw several flocks during the winter feeding on 

 the buds of trees." 



The above records indicate that during the years 1886 and 

 1887 there was a rather phenomenal appearance of the Gros- 

 beaks within the limits of our area. During recent years while 

 this species has been a constant it could hardly be considered a 

 common winter visitant, though the number of individuals ob- 

 served has been quite large during some seasons. 



The home of the Evening Grosbeaks is in the coniferous for- 

 ests of the northwest. Their range includes the western British 

 Provinces, east to Lake Superior ; in the Rocky Mountains south 

 into the United States and eastward irregularly in winter to 

 Michigan and Indiana and, casually, to the Atlantic coast. 



*Birds of Northeastern Illinois, Bull, of the Essex Institute, Vol. VIII, 1876, 104. 

 t Twenty-second Annual Report Dept. of Geol. and Nat. Resources, Indiana 

 1897, 912, 913. 



