80 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. III. 



Several times I had my gun ready to secure specimens, but my heart 

 failed me each time. They have been noticed in bunches of three to 

 five, all over this section, and are exceedingly tame, a number were 

 secured by Mr. Melville, our local taxidermist. — A. P. CORNELL, M.D, 

 Gravenhurst 



March 19, I observed two evening Grosbeaks on this date in our 

 orchard. — MRS. J. R. BARBER, Georgetown. 



April 11, at Todmorden, north-east of Toronto, I saw five Evening 

 Grosbeaks on a birch tree, near Taylor's Paper Mills, there were four 

 males and one female. On returning half an hour afterwards they had 

 flown, and hearing them in a piece of woods close by, I went over and 

 found a small flock in the top of a pine tree. They were playing with 

 each other, apparently pairing, but although the males exceeded the 

 females in numbers there was no fighting. They were uttering their 

 characteristic whistle and another call which I never heard before, the 

 whistle blending into a soft musical r-r-r-r-r. These calls repeated by a 

 number of birds made a very pleasing little concert. I watched them as 

 they flew from tree to tree several ..times, and I counted thirty-five 

 specimens, of these at least twenty-four were males. At one time 

 nineteen settled on the top of a red oak, so closely together that a 

 charge of small shot might have killed every specimen. On walking 

 about a mile homewards I came on a flock of over fifty in R. Davies' 

 orchard, feeding on the ground among brewery refuse which was 

 scattered as manure. — W. BRODIE. 



April 1 3, while shooting at Chester with Mr. Jas. R. Thurston we came 

 upon a flock of about fifty birds, feeding on brewery refuse. We col- 

 lected seven males and females. There were more males than females 

 in the flock. — JOHN EDMONDS. 



April 15, while collecting on Well's Hill I came across a flock of 

 Evening Grosbeaks which numbered about thirty, in the top of a clump 

 of pines I followed them and eventually secured five females and three 

 males, one of the former taken alive. I only observed six or seven 

 males in the flock. These birds have been absent almost entirely from 

 Toronto since March 1. 



April 17, I saw a female take several straws from a Sparrow's {Passer 

 dotnesticus) nest, and expecting she was building I followed her. She 

 carried them about for some time and at last carelessly dropped them 

 on top of a witch hazel tree and left them. 



April 21, the birds were observed in the same place, but no further 

 attempt at nesting was apparent, nor did they seem paired. 



April 29, these birds are still here. 



