Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



Evening Grosbeak 



(Coccothraustes vespertinus) Finch family 



Length — 8 inches. Two inches shorter than the robin. 



il/a/*— Forehead, shoulders, and underneath clear yellow; dull 

 yellow on lower back; sides of the head, throat, and breast 

 olive-brown. Crown, tail, and wings black, the latter with 

 white secondary feathers. Bill heavy and blunt, and yellow. 



Female — Brownish gray, more or less suffused with yellow. 

 Wings and tail blackish, with some white feathers. 



JRange — Interior of North America. Resident from Manitoba 

 northward. Common winter visitor in northwestern United 

 States and Mississippi Valley ; casual winter visitor in north- 

 ern Atlantic States. 



In the winter of 1889-90 Eastern people had the rare treat of 

 becoming acquainted with this common bird of the Northwest, 

 that, in one of its erratic travels, chose to visit New England and 

 the Atlantic States, as far south as Delaware, in great numbers. 

 Those who saw the evening grosbeaks then remember how 

 beautiful their yellow plumage — a rare winter tint — looked in the 

 snow-covered trees, where small companies of the gentle and even 

 tame visitors enjoyed the buds and seeds of the maples, elders, 

 and evergreens. Possibly evening grosbeaks were in vogue for 

 the next season's millinery, or perhaps Eastern ornithologists 

 had a sudden zeal to investigate their structural anatomy. At 

 any rate, these birds, whose very tameness, that showed slight 

 acquaintance with mankind, should have touched the coldest 

 heart, received the warmest kind of a reception from hot shot. 

 The few birds that escaped to the solitudes of Manitoba could not 

 be expected to tempt other travellers eastward by an account of 

 their visit. The bird is quite likely to remain rare in the East. 



But in the Mississippi Valley and throughout the northwest, 

 companies of from six to sixty may be regularly counted upon as 

 winter neighbors on almost every farm. Here the females keep 

 up a busy chatting, like a company of cedar birds, and the males 

 punctuate their pauses with a single shrill note that gives little 

 indication of their vocal powers. But in the solitude of the north- 

 ern forests the love-song is said to resemble the robin's at the 

 start. Unhappily, after a most promising beginning, the bird 

 suddenly stops, as if he were out of breath. 



192 



