LAND BIRDS. 469 
common throughout the Upper Peninsula from Marquette eastward to 
the Sault. Major Boies states that he saw it on Neebish Island in summer 
feeding on the seeds of the burdock, and Mr. O. B. Warren states that it 
is abundant and breeds in Marquette county. It has also been recorded 
by Dr. Wolcott as breeding at Charlevoix in the summer of 1894, and 
Hazelwood states that it sometimes nests at Port Huron, although he 
has not taken the eggs. There is a nesting record for Lansing, a bird having 
built its nest in an evergreen tree in a dooryard in that city. Dr. Gibbs 
records a set of two eggs taken in Kalamazoo county in 1870, ’71 or ’72, 
but is unable to give other data. In St. Clair county both Mr. Taverner 
and Mr. Swales say that it is rather scarce and irregular, occurring only 
as a migrant. Even at Lansing, where it is a regular spring visitor, it 
comes singly and in small numbers in the spring, but occurs in flocks of a 
dozen or two in October, when it is frequently found feeding on the seeds 
‘a oe trees, most often perhaps on those of the hornbeam or blue 
eech. 
This is a bird of somewhat doubtful utility, since it has a pronounced 
fondness for the blossom-buds of fruit trees and a small flock will some- 
times nip off nearly all the fruit buds on a good-sized pear tree in the course 
of a few visits. On the other hand, it eats a good many injurious insects 
during the summer and is one of our very best singers, its song resembling 
that of the Canary, and also to a certain extent that of the Warbling Vireo. 
It is one of the few species which habitually sing on the wing, and an old 
male in full plumage, floating slowly in a descending spiral and pouring 
out a perfect flood of melody, makes one of the most attractive experiences 
which fall to the lot of the bird lover. The males do not acquire the full 
plumage until at least two years old and many of the yearlings sing and nest 
while still in the gray plumage. Specimens intermediate in plumage 
and song are frequently met with, but most breeding pairs are found to 
consist of a rosy male and gray female. 
The nest is usually placed in the top of an evergreen tree (often a red 
cedar or a balsam fir) at a height of twelve to fifty feet, and is compactly 
built of grasses, roots and usually some hair, and in the writer’s experience 
is deeply hollowed, although other observers describe it as shallow. The 
eggs are three or four, greenish blue, speckled and sometimes pen-scratched 
with brown and black. They average .80 by .57 inches. Both nest and 
eggs closely resemble those of the common Chipping Sparrow, but of course 
are decidedly larger. 
This is one of the birds which ought to increase in numbers with the 
settlement and cultivation of the country, but thus far it does not seem 
to have done so in Michigan; indeed, several correspondents state that the 
bird is not as common now as formerly. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: General color rosy red, brightest on crown and rump, fading to whitish 
on lower breast and belly, but usually tinged with red even there; back and wing-coverts 
mottled red and brown, owing to brownish centers of the feathers; wings and tail dusky 
or brownish, the wings usually with two distinct reddish bars formed by tips of middle 
and greater coverts; bill, feet and iris, brown. . ; 
Adult female: Without any red; upper parts streaked with gray and olive-brown, 
the latter predominating; under parts whitish, thickly streaked and spotted with olive- 
brown; a broad brownish stripe behind the eye, bordered above. and below by whitish; 
wings and tail similar to those of male, but with no reddish edgings, the two wing-bars 
