Auk, XIII, April, 1896, p/>. 77~&. 
(\_ ^7>i c -\-oe_ f 
Pinicola enucleator. — lhe Pine Grosbeaks are at present to be seen 
daily in the vicinity of Bang'or, Me., and I believe they are present this 
winter in even greater numbers than were here three years ago in 1892 - 
i 8 93- The proportion of red males seems to be about one to every ten dull- 
colored birds. What is remarkable is the extremely early date at which I 
saw the first birds this fall. On Oct. 26, while hunting at Mud Pond, about 
ten miles from Bangor, I saw a flock of ten or fifteen Grosbeaks. To 
make doubly sure I shot two of them, but found, on coming to skin them, 
that they were moulting, and their feathers were so loose that it was im- 
possible to save the skins. On dissection they proved to be young males. 
Their stomachs contained a mass of fir buds and seeds. They were next 
seen on Nov. 10, near Orono, about nine miles from Bangor, and presum- 
ably belonging to a different flock, as they were about five miles from the 
locality where the birds were previously seen. After this they were seen 
■every few days, but I did not see any in the city of Bangor until the last 
week in December. From that time up to the present date, Feb. 17, 1 have 
seen them in the city nearly every day. Their chief food seems to be the 
seeds of crab-apples, and mountain ash berries. 
'7'vi 
<U 
w Tlie Pine Grosbeak . 
MRS. GEO. P. GODFREY . iSJUit 
0ne day, three or more years ago, as I 
passed down the sidewalk beyond our 
gate I saw with amazement a red bird 
of great beauty, under the big spruce 
tree, and directly in my pathway. He let 
me come so near before he moved that he 
seemed to me almost a miracle. In the 
summer time, in the course of my life, 1 
had seen an occasional linnet of a similar 
tint, but the linnet was a smaller bird 
and less richly colored. This glimpse of 
the beautiful red bird both puzzied and 
pleased me; it set me talking, but my 
friends who had not seen him, naturally 
made little response. 
Some time after, coming home late in 
the afternoon, I saw a couple of tall elms 
with their bare branches ornamented 
with numbers of these perfect birds. 
They seemed to have alighted there in 
order better to see tire sunset. The sun- 
light which had left me quite dark and 
chill down in the street below, still glow- 
ed on them, seeming to keep them warm. 
Yet another day, not long after, from 
my sitting-room window I had ample op- 
portunity to watch more such birds, on 
a pair of sumac trees, just out below the 
terrace. I could look down upon them 
there, through all the blow and snow; 
but I cared less for these, because these 
were all dull-colored ones; I called them 
gray ones, and at the time supposed that 
this was a different species. 
By this time I had learned to believe 
that they were grosbeaks. 
Receiving by chance, the same year, 
one of the circulars sent out by Mr. Wil- 
liam Brewster, asking for information as 
to the local presence or absence of the 
grosbeaks, etc., I answered his questions 
with the few facts I could give. He 
thanked me for them kindly at the time; 
and this year I was delighted to receive 
a copy of this paper of his, which was 
published in “The Auk” for July, 1S95. 
It is entitled “A Remarkable Flight of 
Pine Grosbeaks.” 
Following this pleasing introduction 
Mrs. Godfrey greatly entertained her lis- 
teners by reading the paper of Mr. Brew"- 
ster to which reference was made. This 
is contained in a pamphlet of a dozen 
pages, accompanied by two maps show- 
ing the geographical distribution through- 
out New England of the Pine Grosbeak 
during the winter of 1892-’93. The Com- 
mercial much regrets that it has not space 
at command to-day, to republish this im- 
portant contribution to ornithological 
science, entire. In it Mr. Brewster refers 
to the observations of Mr. Manley Hardy 
of Brewer, and on the margin Mrs. God- 
frey adds this note: “Jan. 24, 1898.— On 
Wednesday- morning of this week my 
husband saw one of these birds — glad to 
realize that the red bird still lives to 
sing his notes and show himself.” 
