52 Notice of the Appearance of the Pine Grosbeak. 



company. When shot at, or disturbed, they fly off in different 

 directions, uttering a shrill loud note or call. When single 

 ..they seem very restless, repeating their call incessantly. They 

 are very active in pursuit of food, and are frequently seen flut- 

 tering upward after berries in the same manner as the common 

 Cedar Bird. 



Among our specimens, amounting to some hundreds, many 

 of which we dissected to determine the sex, we have observed 

 the following principal varieties : 



1. Those with the plumage, above and below, principally of 

 a bluish gray, with the crown and rump dark olive, approach- 

 ing to orange. These we take to be the young of the year. 



2. Those which have these parts crimson, except that the 

 back feathers are merely bordered with this colour, the centre 

 being dark. According to Temminck they are the males after 

 their first moult. 



3. Those which have scarlet instead of the crimson, the 

 males after the second moult. 



4. Those in which the crown is dark brown, the rump yel- 

 low-olive, and the back cinereous, and the head a mixture of 

 cinereous and olive-green, and all exhibiting traces, more or 

 less, evident of the cinereous plumage. From this last cir- 

 cumstance it would appear that they were males in the third 

 year, though not answering to the description given by Tem- 

 minck. 



5. Those in which the brown parts of the last-mentioned 

 are bright orange-brown, especially the rump, with scarcely a 

 faint trace of red. This appears to be an old individual, and, 

 from dissection, we are of opinion that it is an old female. 



