180 
PINE GROSBEAK. 
The young gentlemen of my party, accompanied by my son John Wood- 
house, and a Newfoundland Indian, had gone into the interior in search of 
Rein Deer, but returned the following afternoon, having found the flies and 
musquitoes intolerable. My son brought a number of Pine Grosbeaks, of 
different sexes, young and adult, but all the latter in moult, and patched 
with dark red, ash, black and white. It was curious to see how covered 
with sores the legs of the old birds of both sexes were. These sores or 
excrescences are, I believe, produced by the resinous matter of the fir-trees 
on which they obtain their food. Some specimens had the hinder part of 
the tarsi more than double their usual size, the excrescences could not be 
removed by the hand, and I was surprised that the birds had not found 
means of ridding themselves of such an inconvenience. One of the figures 
in my plate represents the form of these sores. 
I was assured that during mild winters, the Pine Grosbeak is found in the 
forests of Newfoundland in considerable numbers, and that some remain 
during the most severe cold. A lady who had resided there many years, 
and who was fond of birds, assured me that she had kept several males in 
cages ; that they soon became familiar, would sing during the night, and 
fed on all sorts of fruits and berries during the summer, and on seeds of 
various kinds in winter ; that they were fond of bathing, but liable to 
cramps ; and that they died of sores produced around their eyes and the 
base of the upper mandible. I have observed the same to happen to the 
Cardinal and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. 
The flight of this bird is undulating and smooth, performed in a direct 
line when it is migrating, at a considerable height above the forests, and in 
groups of from five to ten individuals. They alight frequently during the 
day, on such trees as are opening their buds or blossoms. At such times 
they are extremely gentle, and easily approached, are extremely fond of 
bathing, and whether on the ground or on branches, move by short leaps. I 
have been much surprised to see, on my having fired, those that were 
untouched, fly directly towards me, until within a few feet, and then slide oil 
and alight on the lower branches of the nearest tree, where, standing as 
erect as little Hawks, they gazed upon me as if I were an object quite new, 
and of whose nature they were ignorant. They are easily caught under 
snow-shoes put up with a figure of four, around the wood-cutters’ camps, in 
the State of Maine, and are said to afford good eating. Their food consists 
of the buds and seeds of almost all sorts of trees. Occasionally also they 
seize a passing insect. I once knew one of these sweet songsters, which, in 
the evening, as soon as the lamp was lighted in the room where its cage 
was hung, would instantly tune its voice anew. 
My kind friend Thomas M’Culloch of Pictou in Nova Scotia, has sent 
