An Attempt to Breed the Pine Grosbeak in Captivity. — The last 
week in January, 1917, 1 heard of a small Hook of Pine Grosbeaks or “ Can- 
ada Robins ” as they are called locally, in a grove of red cedars about a mile 
and a half from my home. The morning of January 28 with bright sun- 
shine and thermometer hovering around zero, I took a bamboo fish pole 
about eight feet long with a short stout piece of string and slip knot that 
would hold open three or four inches and went fishing for them. I found 
a flock of at least twenty-five Pine Grosbeaks all in the gray plumage and 
about the same number of Evening Grosbeaks, the first ever noted here. 
It was a beautiful sight to see half a dozen of each kind feeding on cedar 
berries from the same branch. The Pine Grosbeaks were very tame, as is 
usual when in this latitude, but I could only approach within about thirty 
feet of the Evening Grosbeaks when they would go off in a startled whirl 
like a bunch of English Sparrows. 
I soon secured three of the Pine Grosbeaks, one of which was much 
darker than the other two and I judged it to be a female. Returning home 
I put them in a cage 24 x 18 x 12 inches which I placed in the living room. 
The birds quickly became contented and in a few days would take hemp 
seed from my hand or mouth. The second week in February the two 
brighter colored birds began to sing a low sweet warbling song and at 
other times kept up a pleasing conversation. 
Wishing to keep a pair, male and female, I sent one of the singing birds 
to the Bronx Zoo where it died in a week or two and was dissected and 
found to be a male. About the middle of June my singer dropped dead 
from the perch one morning, and dissection proved it a female. The 
remaining bird appeared lonesome and for about a week often made the 
whistling call. The cage was then hung outside the kitchen window over 
which a grapevine was growing, with a wide board over the top to keep 
off the rain and within a few days the bird began singing with even more 
vigor and vim than the others had shown. The first week in July I noticed 
her hopping about the cage with bits of grass in her beak trying to fasten 
them somewhere so I placed a wire bowl in an upper corner and put in 
nesting material — shredded bark, sticks, grass and a few feathers, with 
which she at once began to fill the bowl and within a week had formed a 
very good nest. In this on July 9 she deposited an egg and by July 15 
she had completed the clutch of four perfectly typical eggs. Being infertile 
I had to add them to my collection. 
During the nesting period the bird would eat from one to three moderate 
sized angleworms a day. It did not bolt them down after the manner of the 
robin but bit off small pieces and chewed them before swallowing. Cuttle 
bone was also in demand. This feeding continued for perhaps three weeks 
and again during the moult in September and October. At other times 
the bird would take no animal food although insects and worms of various 
kinds were offered. Its staple food was canary millet, rape, oats and a 
little sunflower seed with plenty of fruit and succulent grass, lettuce, 
cabbage and apple cores. The past winter the cage has hung outside 
with a hood of transparent celluloid to cover the upper two thirds for 
shelter and wind break. I hoped that the Pine Grosbeaks would visit 
us again and that my lady bird by calling might help me to obtain a mate 
for her. None visited this part of Connecticut the past winter, however, 
and I think but very few came below latitude 45°. I still have hopes of 
breeding them in captivity as they very soon become tame and contented 
with cage life. My bird did not mind the cold of the zero week during 
which she had an extra allowance of hemp and sunflower seed and a bit of 
suet. She began singing February 1 and at present writing, March 24, 
1918, is singing much of her time, using her whistling call notes when 
Robins or Starlings fly near. Her song is identical with that of the male 
and rather reminds one of the song of their pigmy representative the 
Purple Finch but lacks the ringing quality. 
If I obtain a male to mate with my bird another year and should succeed 
in breeding them, there are several experiments to be made. One is to 
see if birds raised here and given their liberty would remain throughout 
the year and another in regard to color changes in the male. — Geo. M. 
Marckrfs, Sharon, Conn. 
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