70 
Coues’s History of the Evening Grosbeak. 
and interesting chapter was added by J. K. Townsend, who contrib- 
uted his observations to Audubon’s work, under date of “ Columbia 
River, May 27, 1836.” He corrected two grave errors which had 
already cropped out, namely, respecting the sexual similarity in 
plumage, and concerning the wrong notion that the bird sings only 
at evening, as implied in the term vesfjertina. His notice is worth 
transcribing, even at this late day, so little further information have 
we acquired respecting the habits of the Evening Grosbeak. 
“ The Evening Grosbeak,” says Townsend, “ is very numerous in 
the pine-woods at this time. You can scarcely enter a grove of 
pines at any hour in the day without seeing numbers of them. 
They are very unsuspicious and tame, and I have, in consequence, 
been enabled to procure a fine suite of specimens. The accounts 
that have been published respecting them by the only two authors 
to whom I have access, Mr. Nuttall and Prince Bonaparte, are, I 
*#• 
think, in many respects, incorrect. In the first place, it is stated 
that they are retiring and silent during the day, and sing only on 
the approach of evening. Here they are remarkably noisy during 
the whole of the day, from sunrise to sunset. They then retire 
quietly to their roosts in the summits of the tall pines, and are not 
aroused until daylight streaks the east, when they come forth to 
feed as before. Thus I have observed them here, but will not say 
but that at other seasons and in other situations their habits may 
be different. They are now, however, very near the season of 
breeding, as the organs of the specimens I examined sufficiently 
indicate. They appear fond of going in large bodies, and it is 
rare to see one alone in a tree. They feed upon the seeds of the 
pine and other trees, alighting upon large limbs, and proceeding 
by a succession of hops to the very extremities of the branches. 
They eat, as well as seeds, a considerable quantity of the larvse 
of the large black ant, and it is probable that it is to procure 
this food that they are not uncommonly seen in the tops of the low 
oaks which here skirt the forests. Their ordinary voice, when they 
are engaged in procuring food, consists of a single rather screaming 
note, which from its tone I at first supposed to be one of alarm, but 
soon discovered my error* At other times, particularly about mid- 
day, the male sometimes selects a lofty pine branch, and there at- 
tempts a song ; but it is a miserable failure, and he seems conscious 
of it, for he frequently pauses and looks discontented, then remains 
silent sometimes for some minutes, and tries it again, but with no 
