38

1916

(Evening Grosbeak) of more than eight and she felt positive
that this number had never once before been exceeded except
perhaps on the occasion of their first appearance & departure
when, she thought, there might have been as many as we 
together saw. The latter remained long in the apple tree sometimes
scattered all over & throughout its branches, occasionally clustering here
and there by threes or fours, always perching erect & statuesque when inert,
ever sluggish and listless of movement when hopping or flitting from twig,
silent for the most part but every now and then uttering staccato calls
which might easily have been mistaken for those of House Sparrows although
although appreciably shriller or more piping and perhaps, as Miss Eaton
thought, somewhat suggestive in quality of the spring voices of Pickerings Hylas.
No other vocal notes were heard by us on this occasion. At length the birds 
took wing and with swift, moderately undulating flight swept over the
open hill-top to a cluster of gray birches beyond where they sat as inactive
as before for many minutes finally flying off in a north westerly direction
until lost to sight in far distance. Nor are they known to have ever
returned after this. On examining the ground close to the house, on or
over which they have been feeding mostly, I found it thickly strewn with
white ash seeds, evidently scattered widely by strong winds for very
many were not under any tree from which they could have come.
There were also less numerous box elder seeds, beneath the well
grown trees of that species, and these, Miss Eaton thinks, may have
supplied most of the food of the Grosbeaks for she did not see
them eating the white ash seeds although Purple Finches had been 
feasting on them for a week or more and were still doing so when I
was there. It is noteworthy, if not also rather remarkable, that this
flock of Evening Grosbeaks, like that viewed by me at Lexington
on January 24, should have suddenly increased from a lesser
number to just eleven members, on the occasion of my only visit to
their haunts and after that should never have been seen again by anyone!