180 PINE GROSBEAK. 



The young gentlemen of my party, accompanied by my son John Wood- 

 house, and a Newfoundland Indian, had gone into the interior in search of 

 Rein Deer, but returned the following afternoon, having found the flies and 

 musquitoes intolerable. My son brought a number of Pine Grosbeaks, of 

 different sexes, young and adult, but all the latter in moult, and patched 

 with dark red, ash, black and white. It was curious to see how covered 

 with sores the legs of the old birds of both sexes were. These sores or 

 excrescences are, I believe, produced by the resinous matter of the fir-trees 

 on which they obtain their food. Some specimens had the hinder part of 

 the tarsi more than double the usual size, the excrescences could not be 

 removed by the hand, and I was surprised that the birds had not found 

 means of ridding themselves of such an inconvenience. One of the figures 

 in my plate represents the form of these sores. 



I was assured that during mild winters, the Pine Grosbeak is found in the 

 forests of Newfoundland in considerable numbers, and that some remain 

 during the most severe coid. A lady who had resided there many years, 

 and who was fond of birds, assured me that she had kept several males in 

 cages; that they soon became familiar, would sing during the night, and fed 

 on all sorts of fruits and berries during the summer, and on seeds of various 

 kinds in winter; that they were fond of bathing, but liable to cramps; and 

 that they died of sores produced around their eyes and the base of the upper 

 mandible. I have observed the same to happen to the Cardinal and Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeaks. 



The flight of this bird is undulating and smooth, performed in a direct 

 line when it is migrating, at a considerable height above the forests, and in 

 groups of from five to ten individuals. They alight frequently during the 

 day, on such trees as are opening their buds or blossoms. At such times 

 they are extremely gentle, and easily approached, are extremely fond of 

 bathing, and whether on the ground or on branches, move by short leaps. I 

 have been much surprised to see, on my having fired, those that were 

 untouched, fly directly towards me, until within a few feet, and then slide off 

 and alight on the lower branches of the nearest tree, where, standing as 

 erect as little Hawks, they gazed upon me as if I were an object quite new, 

 and of whose nature they were ignorant. They are easily caught under 

 snow-shoes put up with a figure of four, around the wood-cutters' camps, in 

 the State of Maine, and are said to afford good eating. Their food consists 

 of the buds and seeds of almost all sorts of trees. Occasionally also they 

 seize a passing insect. I once knew one of these sweet songsters, which, in 

 the evening, as soon as the lamp was lighted in the room where its cage was 

 hung, would instantly tune its voice anew. 



My kind friend Thomas M'Culloch of Pictou in Nova Scotia, has sent 



