flocks among the flowering magnolias late in April. These flocks consisted almost 

 entirely of females, the males having passed through a week before. In the Ozark region 

 of south-western Missouri I noticed the first flocks of males during the last week of 

 April and in northern Illinois in the first days of May. The southern limit of the Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak's breeding range seems to be St. Louis, where it arrives, according 

 to Mr. Otto Widmann, in the last week of April. He writes me, that there it rears two 

 broods each season, and that it leaves for its winter-quarters late in September.* It 

 usually breeds from latitude 37° northward. How far^ it penetrates the British territory 

 we do not know, but it is met" with in the Selkirk Settlement and, according to Mr. E. 

 E. Thompson, it is a tolerably common summer resident at Portage la Prairie, Mani- 

 toba, where it arrives about May 22. It migrates in large and rather scattered flocks, 

 and the males arrive usually five or six days in advance of the females. At Shiocton, 

 Wis., according to Mr. Griindtvig, this bird is rather common, and in 1882 he found a 

 dozen pairs breeding in the vicinity of a house. He saw the first male May 9, the first 

 female May 15, and the bulk about May 24. About its occurrence in the mountains 

 of North Carolina, Prof. Wm. Brewster writes as follows: 



"1 found this species only in the country about Highlands and on the Black 

 Mountains. In the former locality it ranged from (approximately) 3,500 to "4,500 feet; 

 in the latter from 3,800 to 5,000 feet; in both it was far more abundant than I have 



ever seen it at the North. Its favorite haunts were the 6pen oak woodlands 



Throughout these, at all times of the day, I was rarely out of hearing of its voice. 

 .The song did not seem to difier from that of our northern bird, but what a superb 

 performance it is whenever heard — so rich, flowing, and withal so tender and plaintive! 

 I know of no bird-voice more expressive of feeling and sentiment." 



This Grosbeak is an inhabitant of eastern North America, west to the Missouri 

 plains, being more abundantly met with in the West thaii in the East. "I have nowhere 

 found this beautiful bird more abundant," writes Dr. Elliott Coues, "than along the 

 Red River of the North, and there may be no locality where its nidification and breeding 

 habits can be studied to greater advantage. On entering the belt of noble timber that 

 borders the river, in June, we are almost sure to be saluted with the rich, rolling song 

 of the rose-breasted male, and as we penetrate into the deeper recesses, pressing through 

 the stubborn luxuriance of vegetation into the little shady glades that the bird loves so 

 well, we may catch a glimpse of the shy and retiring female, darting into concealment, 

 disturbed by our approach. She is almost sure to be followed the next moment by her 

 ardent spouse, solicitous for her safety, bent on reassuring her by his presence and 

 caresses. Sometimes during this month, as we enter a grove of saplings, and glance 

 carefully overhead, we may see the nest, placed but a few feet from the ground, in the 

 fork of a limb. The female, alarmed, will flutter away stealthily, and we may not catch 

 another glimpse of her, nor of her mate even, though we hear them both anxiously 

 consulting together at a little distance." 



Formerly the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, although not very abundant and of some- 

 what irregular occurrence, was a numerous bird in the Eastern States and New England, 

 but now it is a rare bird in many places. Even in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin it 



• "In 1885 common Sept. 16, Tcry numerous September 2a, bulk present Sept, 25, and bulk departed Sept. 29," 



