24'2 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



Pinicola, enucleator,' Cabanis. 



■ The Pine Grosbeak is but an ocGasional visitamt 

 im Pennsylvania, and then only ditring the winter; 

 driven by necessity, doubtless, from its more 

 northern habitat it reaches this latitude ' about the 

 beginning of December. It is a' denizen of dense 

 pine forests during the cold weather, which' it for- 

 sakes in the Spring for our apple and '-pear 

 orchards, where it commits an immense ■ -amount 

 of mischief by the destruction of the ' buds. . It is 

 very tmsuspeetjng" and familiar. • Like Vnany other 

 species whose history we have delineated, this one 

 is a- solitary? feeder. Though chiefly arboreal^' it 

 o-ccasionally descends to the ground and 'forages 

 amwmg the fallen leaves for the seeds "of- various 

 speeies-of Pinus and grasses, and: the-; beetles 

 which seek cover under such warm substaneesi -•' 

 The following articles contribute slightly to its 

 maintenance during the^ prevalence of winter: — 

 The seeds of the various species of PmOis, as Ptnus 

 siroittSi P. iiiops, P. rigida^ Abies nigra, A. cana- 

 densis, B&tula\c:xicelsa, and the herr'ms o( yuniperits 



Virginiana, y. communis, Lonicera periclymenuni, 

 and others. Besides the eggs, pupae, and imagos 

 of Cratonychus cinereusj C.pertinax, Pangus caligi- 

 nosus, and other coleoptera. Early in the spring- 

 the>buds of Acer rubnim, A. saccharinum, and tiie 

 tender cones of the various species of /^«?f j,. with' 

 Harpalus compar, H. pensylvatiicus, Bostrichus 

 pint, and Ckrysomela cesruleipennis. 



