The Black-and- Yellow Grosbeak 



with stalks of maiden-hair fern and fine roots. 

 It is usually placed high up in a fir tree. 

 Colonel Rattray believes that the birds bring 

 up two broods in the year. They lay first in 

 May, and, as soon as the young are able to 

 shift for themselves, a second nest is made. 

 Thus in July both young birds at large and 

 nests with eggs are likely to be seen. The eggs 

 are not unlike those of the English hawfinch ; 

 the ground colour is pale greenish grey, 

 blotched and spotted with blackish brown. 

 Sometimes the markings occur chiefly at the 

 broad end of the eggs. 



The most striking feature of the black-and- 

 yellow grosbeak, and that on which I wish 

 particularly to dwell, is the extraordinary re- 

 semblance that the cock bird bears to the cock 

 black-headed oriole. If this extended to the 

 hen, and if the grosbeak were parasitic on the 

 oriole, it would be held up as an example of 

 mimicry. We should be told that owing to its 

 resemblance to its dupe it was able to approach 

 the nest without raising any suspicion and 

 deposit its egg. But the grosbeak is not 

 parasitic on the oriole, and it is the cock and 

 not the hen that bears the resemblance ; more- 

 over, the black-headed oriole does not occur in 

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