Notes upon the Sudden Appearance in Numbers of the Evening Gros- 
beak at Fort Wingate, New Mexico. — For four years and more (1884-1888) 
I have made constant and careful observations during all seasons upon 
the birds that are to be found in the country about Fort Wingate, New 
Mexico. Much of this time I have rambled over this region almost daily, 
collecting birds and mammals and making extended notes upon them. 
During the first three years the Evening Grosbeak ( Coccothraustes ves- 
pertina) was not to be found in the vicinity during either the vernal or 
autumnal migrations, and I never so much as heard its note. My mind 
was about satisfied that the species was not a visitant to this part of the 
range of the Rocky Mountains, when the doubt was suddenly dissipated 
last month (October, 1888) while I was out collecting in the pine forests 
about two miles from the station. There I met with a little party of four 
individuals, all females, and in wretched plumage; three of these were 
secured. A little later and in a different locality, this time some two 
miles in the opposite direction from the Fort, I came upon a very hand- 
some pair, and succeeded m taking the male. He was an old one in fine 
autumnal feather. I saw no more of them until yesterday (Nov. 10, 
1888), at which time I was with my gun in the cedar woods quite close to 
my house. The day was clear and the temperature moderate, though 
heavy frosts had occurred on the two preceding days and nights. The 
woods were actually alive with Robins (M. m. propinqua ), feeding upon 
the cedar berries, and I soon discovered that numbers of Evening Gros- 
beaks were with them. At first I met with these latter in small flocks, 
from five to ten in number, but as I came into more favorable localities, 
they appeared in straggling parties consisting of from thirty to a hundred 
individuals. They mingled with the Robins both in the trees and in the 
loose flocks that, kept passing overhead, and frequently gave vent to their 
loud and shrill whistle. There was no trouble in approaching them, 
while feeding upon the berries, as they appeared to be quite unsuspicious 
and not easily alarmed. My collecting basket soon contained a fine 
assortment of these truly beautiful creatures, they being in rich autumnal 
dress, and only occasionally was one to be met with that had not quite 
completed this plumage. The females differed considerably in their col- 
oring, while in some of the males X observed that the rich orange band 
of the forehead and superciliary line was carried around in diminishing 
breadth to fairly meet the stripe of the opposite side at the occiput and 
completely blend with it there. In the males, too, the plumage of the legs 
is black, with the feathers each narrowly bordered with yellowish green ; 
this feature is not usually described by ornithologists. Only a lew 
moments ago X made up some half dozen skins of these birds, and my two 
sons each made a pair more apiece, all carefully selected. I was not a little 
surprised to find my experiences both in this and in shooting the speci- 
mens to be at complete variance with those of Dr. Merrill, as mentioned 
by him in a recent issue of ‘The Auk’ (Oct. 1888, p. 357)- Neither I nor 
my sons found any difficulty whatever in making capital skins of these 
specimens, and I am quite sure I did not lose more than a feather to a 
bird in those that I prepared, and the skin in none of them appeared to 
me to be unusually thin. Moreover, some of them were killed with No. 
8 shot, and in falling bumped down through the pine trees without any 
apparent damage, and only with the loss of a feather or two. It is diffi- 
cult for me to account for this difference in our observations, infinitely 
the more so when the statement comes from the pen of such an accurate 
describer as is Dr. Merrill. 
This extraordinary flight of these Grosbeaks here, convinces me that 
either the bird is inclined to be at times very erratic in its migrations, or 
else it may have to do with the approaching season, perhaps indicating a 
coming winter of unusual severity. 
An excellent series of skeletons rewarded my collecting, and as I pre- 
dicted in my letter in the October ‘Auk’, th e. secondary palatine processes 
are absent, the entire skull much resembling that part of the skeleton in 
Coccothraustes vulgaris , as figured for us by Huxley.— R. W. Shufeldt, 
Fort Wingate , Ne-w Mexico. 
j-.. »» e - p - n-7y. 
