Voi. xin 
1895 J 
Brewster on the Pine Grosbeak. 
screams and flutterings of my victim started his companions at 
once. They would return, however, as soon as I walked away, 
and sometimes while I was still engaged in freeing the captive 
bird from the noose. One Grosbeak which escaped from my 
hands after being snared would not again permit me to get the 
noose near him, and even, I thought, tried to warn his com- 
panions of their danger ; nor was he wholly unsuccessful, for his 
alert behavior and loud cries often caused them to stop feeding 
and more than once when he took wing they all followed him. 
The remarkable numbers and tameness of the Grosbeaks 
which visited Cambridge led me to suspect that they formed 
part of a much larger body of birds which had come an un- 
usual distance and spread over an exceptionally wide territory. 
Hoping to get light on these points I sent circulars throughout 
New England, to the Middle States, as far west as Illinois and 
Wisconsin, and as far north as Canada, asking for information as 
to the local presence or absence of the Grosbeaks during the 
winter of 1892-93, their numbers, and the approximate dates of 
their arrival, departure and greatest abundance, the proportion of 
adult males to females and young, and their food. Through the 
kindness with which these circulars were answered I am now 
able to trace with some degree of apparent accuracy the route 
followed by the majority of the birds and the total area covered 
by their flight. 
Before doing this, however, it may be well to consider briefly 
the biographical matter furnished by my correspondents. This 
relates chiefly to food and the ratio of bright males to dull- 
plumaged birds. The tables given below summarize the evidence 
on these two points. It will be seen on examining Table I that 
the chief food of the Grosbeaks consisted of the seeds of the 
white ash (Fraxinus americana ), and of the apple, the fruit of 
the apple and of the American and European mountain ash 
{Pirns americana and Pirns aucuparia) and of the buds of the 
sugar maple (Acer saccharinum) , and Norway spruce ( Abies ex- 
ce/sa). The birds apparently attacked the fruit and buds of other 
plants only when the supply of their favorite food was exhausted. 
I hat the birds ate the seeds of the apple is clearly shown, and 
it seems probable that they ate the pulp as well. One corre- 
