Vermont Botanical and Bird Club 27 



kept up almost continuously, first in one locality and then in another. 

 Sometimes if the nights were bright with moonlight they would drum 

 all through the night; and we remarked that the old and experienced 

 drummers were probably in demand as teachers. 



Since this experience I have seen an article in one of the outing 

 magazines which described the fall drumming lessons of the young 

 partridges, and the descriptions tally perfectly with our observations. 



Large flocks of pine grosbeaks frequently stay around the farm 

 buildings in this locality during extremely cold weather. In the 

 winter of 1912 Mrs. E. E. Earle fed these birds for several weeks and 

 she described a few in the flocks as colored with bright yellow. Her 

 description was very good of the rare evening grosbeak. An item in 

 one of the St. Johnsbury papers that same winter stated that a small 

 flock of the evening grosbeaks had been seen in that vicinity with the 

 pine grosbeaks, that being the third time they had been reported within 

 the state. 



One fall, early in November, we took a trip to the top of Saltash 

 mountain from the Plymouth side. The altitude is between 2,200 and 

 2,500 feet. We were entirely enveloped in clouds a part of the morning, 

 which seemed unfortunate, but these conditions caused a most interest- 

 ing incident. A flock of robins, evidently bewildered or uncertain 

 in their flight, settled down on the bald top and side of the mountain. 

 There were hundreds of them chirping and singing softly. They had 

 apparently started on their migratory flight. 



During that day we saw flocks of American crossbills, pine siskins 

 and numerous red-breasted nuthatches. These little fellows were very 

 sociable and would come down the scrub spruce tree trunks very near 

 us. Their soft chattering and little bugle calls were really quite 

 musical. There were scores of them overhead and in the nearby trees. 

 There is a fascination in watching a flock of pine siskins in their 

 flight, undulating like the goldfinch, though very much more rapid, 

 they will dart out from a tree, cutting wave-like circles, scurry here 

 and there, first high, then low, off to the next hill, and back again. 

 Whether the flock is large or small they always fly as one bird. Their 

 call note, "Swe-e-t," is very like that of the goldfinch. 



