The California Evening Grosbeak 



oologically minded, no less than the admiration of the ladies in gray, 

 who are bound to believe all that is said. 



The nesting of the Evening Grosbeak has been repeatedly and 

 accurately described, 1 but eggs are still very rare in collections, and they 

 are justly rated among the most difficult of oological trophies. The 

 reasons for this hark back alike to the general eccentricity of the bird, 

 and to the seclusion of its summer haunts. The first nest of the species 

 known to science was taken by Rollo H. Beck in Eldorado County, on 

 the 18th of June, 1896, and at an elevation of 4700 feet. It was placed 

 in a black oak tree, 35 feet up, and contained four fresh eggs, of a type 

 more nearly resembling those of a Redwing (Agelaius phoenicens sp.), 

 than those of other, and of course unrelated, "Grossbeaks." Other nests 

 since found, especially those in Arizona and New Mexico, have been 

 placed in large evergreens, and often at heights from the ground and 

 distances from the tree-trunk, sufficient to discourage any but the most 

 hardy investigators. The bird's behavior in nesting country is erratic 

 in the extreme, just as its psychology elsewhere is beyond analysis. One 

 may feel perfectly certain that the bird is nesting, or intending to nest, 

 close at hand; yet it will mope about for discouraging and unsuggestive 

 hours, or else it will depart noisily into hopeless distances. The casual 

 appearances of the bird at such a season suggest a detached aloofness, a 

 total want of correlation between human thought and speculation and 

 Hesperiphonine affairs. Thus, while in the Yosemite in June, 1914, we 

 saw Grosbeaks repeatedly in the very trees which overlooked Camp 

 Curry. The voice of "the Stentor, " issuing nightly, undoubtedly made 

 the Grosbeaks quake upon their nests, but their secrets were as safe from 

 a thousand as from a single pair of inquiring eyes. 



If ever this lady in the green bombazine dress should be detected in 

 the act of settling to a suspicious looking bunch at the end of a pine 

 branch, she will stand by her guns valiantly; and if incubation be ad- 

 vanced, she will almost suffer the hand before she will quit her post. The 

 male, meanwhile, if he is about at all, yelps in impotent rage and flits 

 distractedly from tree to tree; but it never seems to occur to him that he 

 might at least abstract a portion of the bird-man's ear with that potent 

 beak. 



It is important to append a caution against confusing this unique 

 and obscure "Voice of Evening" with the more prosaic and abundant 

 Black-headed Grosbeak, Hedymeles melanocephalus. The two species, 

 both "Sparrows," have nothing else in common beyond the trivial name 

 Grosbeak, a big bill, and partially overlapping ranges. They are not 



1 See especially articles by Beck. Rollo H.. Nidologist. Vol. IV.. Sept., 1896. p. 3; Birtwell, Francis J.. Auk. 

 Vol. XVIII.. Oct., 1901. pp. 3S8-391; Willard. Frank C. Condor, Vol. XII., March, 1910, pp. 60-62. 



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