Lexington, Mass.
1916.
January 24
[January 24, 1916]

Evening Grosbeaks.

  Cloudless, almost windless and very mild for midwinter.
The temperature rising from 30 [degrees] at sunrise to 42 [degrees] at noon.

  Visited (for third time) the hilltop haunts of the Evening
Grosbeaks in Lexington. Arriving there about 10.30 A.M. I
found seven birds (2 [males], 5 [females]) feeding in flowering apple
trees having fruit at least thrice the size of ours but otherwise
similar. This they dealt with as Pine Grosbeaks & Purple
Finches deal with the fruit of our tree, ie eating the seeds
& discarding their pulpy covering. They soon flew off through
some cedars beneath one of which Dr. Tyler and I afterwards
watched them for at least 20 minutes hopping about
on the bare ground and eating something that we could
not certainly make out but we thought it might be
the birch seed covers that were scattered about rather
profusely there. Tyler saw the birds scratch once or
twice, very like a Fox Sparrow, he said. They were
quite mute for the most part but occasionally uttered
faint, low-pitched, chattering notes not unlike those of
Loxia leucoptera and also suggesting the "cheepy-teet"
call ascribed to the Evening Grosbeak by Chapman (Handbook
Bird E.N.A. p. 280). We heard them utter no sounds
other than these to-day. After remaining on the ground
as long as they desired they flew back to the apple tree
and spent upwards of half an hour in it cutting
up its fruit in their massive bills. Here, as on the
ground, I viewed them to excellent advantage, at
close ranges & in clear sunlight. The two males were
certainly very handsome birds, apparently fully adult,
with much yellow & comparatively little seal brown about the head.
Nevertheless they, like all the rest I have seen, seemed
somehow disappointing - perhaps because so silent & inert.