Coues’s History of the Evening Grosbeak. 71 
better success. The note is a single warbling call, exceedingly like 
the early part of the Robin’s song, but not so sweet, and checked as 
though the performer were out of breath. The song, if it may be 
so called, is to me a most wearisome one : I am constantly listening 
to hear the stave continued, and am as constantly disappointed. 
Another error of the books is this — they both state that the fe- 
male is similar to the male in plumage. Now, this is entirely a 
mistake : she is so very different in color and markings that were 
it not for the size and color of the bill, and its peculiar physiog- 
nomy, one might be induced to suppose it another species.” * 
The nest and eggs of this elegant Grosbeak have not been dis- 
covered yet ; nor have w T e, in fact, gained much further insight 
into the bird’s mode of life than Townsend’s note affords. I was 
greatly disappointed in my expectations of making the personal 
acquaintance of the “ Sugar-Bird ” in the solitudes of the Saskatche- 
wan region ; for my search was never rewarded with a glimpse of 
the fugitive among the lowering pines of northernmost Montana, 
nor has it ever been mv fortune to see him in the mountains of 
«/ 
Colorado, New Mexico, or Arizona, where we are informed he is to 
be found. But, before mapping what we have learned of the geo- 
graphical distribution of the species, I may continue with the obser- 
vations of others who have watched the course of the bird in his 
native haunts. 
A fresh glimpse of the Evening Grosbeak w r as lately given (Am. 
Nat. XII, July, 1878, p. 471) by Mr. W. L. Tiffany, of Minneapo- 
lis, Minn., where the interesting bird is said to have resided during 
the winters of the past few years. The Grosbeaks were seldom 
seen except in each other’s company, the flocks sometimes number- 
ing scores of individuals. They frequented usually the groves of the 
sugar-maple ; and the buds of these trees, together with the seeds 
of the box-elder, formed their principal food. They were very 
familiar in their demeanor, appearing even less suspicious of man 
than the confiding Bohemian Waxwings seemed to be, for they 
established their headquarters in the town itself, among the shade- 
trees, and were sometimes seen to ramble over house-tops and 
porches like so many Wrens. Their notes are called by Mr. Tiffany 
* A nominal species had, in fact, already been named by the French orni- 
thologist, R. P. Lesson, who, in 1834, described the female or young male 
Evening Grosbeak as Coccothraustes bonapcirtii. (See anted , p. 66.) 
