The California Evening Grosbeak 



step in the golden stair of springtime, by which we yearly attain the height 

 of ornithological joy. His coming heralds that tidal wave of migration 

 which begins somewhere during the last week of April, and sweeps over us 

 till the middle of May. Without waiting for their more modest mates, the 

 males press northward, hot-winged, to riot for a while over the dank mea- 

 dows in bachelor companies, and to perfect that marvel of tumultuous song. 

 Oh, how they sing, those Bacchanals of springtime! From fence-post or 

 tree-top, or quivering in midair, they pour forth such an ecstacy of liquid, 

 gurgling notes as must thrill the very clods. Such exuberance of spirit, 

 such reckless abandon of mirth-compelling joy would cure a sick preacher 

 on blue Monday. As the bird sings, he bows and scrapes and pirouettes 

 till, as Wheaton says, "he resembles a French dancing master in uniform, 

 singing, fiddling, dancing, and calling off at the same time." 



But when some fine morning about a week later, a shy, plainly attired, 

 brown lady drops from the sky with a soft dink, then it is that the passion- 

 ate soul of the singer is fairly consumed by the inner fires of melody and 

 desire. He dashes like mad after his lady love and pursues her at break- 

 neck speed through the thickets of weeds and about fence-rows until he 

 loses her in the grass. Then he hovers, or rather dances, in the air, over 

 the spot where she vanished, or else retires to a fence-post hard by, to 

 make frantic protestations of his devotion. Oh geezeler, geezeler, gilpity, 

 onkeler, oozeler, oo, comes from that perfect throat; and somewhere 

 between two blades of grass the lady is watching him — the sly minx — and 

 chuckling softy to herself. 



Once I heard a chorus of bachelors — or was it a musical contest? — ■ 

 where seven birds in the top of a willow were singing with might and main. 

 The effect of that wild melody of tinkling, palpitating, and flute-like 

 notes, with its changeful syncopations and melodious discord, will not 

 soon be forgotten. It was an all star team of the world's most accom- 

 plished mirth makers. (The Birds of Ohio). 



No. 23 



California Evening Grosbeak 



A. O. U. No. 514a, part. Hesperiphona vespertina californica Grinnell. 



Description. — Adult male: Forehead and superciliaries wax-yellow; feathers 

 about base of bill, crown, and lores black; wings black, with a large white patch formed 

 by tips of inner secondaries and tertials; upper tail-coverts and tail black; remaining 

 plumage sooty olive-brown about head and neck, shading through olive and olive- 

 yellow on distal scapulars, axillars, and lining of wings, lower rump, and under tail- 

 coverts. Bill greenish horn-color and citron-yellow; feet brownish. Adult female: 



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