i88 3 .] 
Job on Massachusetts Winter Birds. 
147 
This ride took in a circuit of twenty miles, and convinced us 
that though the number of resident birds to be met with in winter 
is very small, yet there is always the chance of meeting unex- 
pectedly something very rare and desirable. We were also quite 
satisfied that while here the Pine Grosbeaks do not remain in the 
bush, but keep by the towns and villages where they find the 
berry-bearing trees and bushes, especially the mountain ash, 
which yields their favorite fare. 
NOTES ON SOME OF THE WINTER BIRDS OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
BY HERBERT K. JOB. 
It has been my privilege for several years past to enjoy many 
opportunities for observing the habits of the birds found in 
Eastern Massachusetts, and being less engaged during the winter 
season than at other times, I have been enabled to become rather 
better acquainted with the birds found then than with those 
seen at other times. Last winter (1882-83) was quite interest- 
ing as regards its feathered creatures, and it is my purpose in this 
article to refer to such of our visitors during that season as may 
be of interest to the readers of the Bulletin, and also to give 
some notes relative to past seasons. 
All collectors in this section must have noticed how promptly 
most of our winter birds arrived last year ; so, although my 
subject is winter birds, I shall have to begin back as early as 
October. The nth of that month brought immense flocks of 
Pine Finches, some flocks containing as many as three hundred 
individuals. They remained mostly in localities where cone- 
bearing evergreens grew more or less plentifully, and were 
abundant until early in November, when they suddenly dis- 
appeared. A few scattering ones were seen in February, but 
scarcely any until a short time since, when quite a number ap- 
peared in my garden in Roxbury, feeding invariably in a small row 
of larch trees. Many of them were single birds, and none were 
