away to the South. With a feeling of melancholy we saw them depart, and yearningly 

 we look for the return of the fii'st harbingers of spring. But winter clings long to the 

 northern parts of our great land, and many weeks will pass ere the first herald will 

 bring to us in jubilant notes the glad tidings: "Yet spring, sweet spring is coming!" 

 We stand at the window observing the whirling snow, but our thoughts wander afar 

 to the distant land where many of our birds spend the winter, as w^e had also done in 

 former years. There, near the Gulf of Mexico, where evergreen hollies, wax-myrtles, 

 yupon bushes (Ilex myrtifolia), magnolias, loblolly bays, and heavily moss-draped 

 deciduous trees make up the forest growth, in the orange groves of Louisiana and 

 Florida, in the palmetto thickets and undergrowth of the woods, there are the 

 thousands of our northern birds, there they find food plentiful, and a congenial clime. 

 Even if an occasional blast from the North may penetrate into that latitude, it has 

 become wayworn in the long journey and lost its vigor. While following these thoughts 

 we failed to notice that a flock of birds had just come up and taken possession of one 

 of the spruces in our garden. They are handsome grayish birds, some w^ith a tinge of 

 red, some even entirely red. How beautiful they appear, these winter visitors, as they 

 move about among the branches and twigs covered with fresh fallen snow. These birds 

 are Pine Grosbeaks who have just arrived from their distant northern home, to spend 

 the w^inter with us. Among them are also frequently seen some Redpolls, Crossbills, 

 Cedarbirds, and occasionally a few Evening Grosbeaks. 



Only in very cold and snowy winters the Pine Grosbeaks visit the northern parts 

 of our country. At such times we may find them south to northern Illinois and Ohio, 

 and occasionally also in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, being sometimes very 

 abundant in New England. The coniferous woods of the North, as far as the Arctic 

 regions, are the true home of these birds. There, in peaceful quietness, far from the abodes 

 of man, undisturbed by human nest robbers, the young leave the nest. In these aromatic 

 pine and spruce woods they lead a retired life in the deepest recesses, and here resounds 

 also the loud and melodious song. In their immediate neighborhood Crossbills, Kinglets, 

 Bohemian Waxwings, many of our beautiful Warblers, and probably also Evening Gros- 

 beaks, breed and sing. In the East the Pine Grosbeak is found, during the breeding 

 time, as far south as Maine, the Magdalene Islands, and the Godbout River in Canada. 

 In the Rocky Mountains this bird also prefers the coniferous woods at an altitude of 

 10,000 to 11,500 feet, and it is also found in the Sierra Nevada, where it appears to 

 be a resident throughout the year. According to Dr. ElUott Coues, who observed this 

 Grosbeak in Labrador, it is confined entirely to the thick woods and patches of scrubby 

 juniper. 



The reports on the life-history of the closely allied European Pine Grosbeak are 

 very meagre, but those on our own species are still more so. Most of the travelers and 

 collectors who had an opportunity to observe the birds in their haunts, have nothing 

 to say about their nidification. In the "Report upon Natural History Collections made 

 in Alaska" by H. W. Nelson I find the following interesting account: 



"Along the entire west and north-west coast of America, from Vancouver Island 

 north to within the Arctic circle, this bird occurs in greater or less abundance. The 

 only breaks in this range are the treeless areas which occur along the coast of Behring 



