Zjtitoni. ^ . 
THE PINE GROSBEAK. 
Pinicola enucleator, Vieiil. 
' 'P 
* 
BY DR. EBTjTOTT OOUBS. 
T HE earliest account of the pine bullfinch to which I can 
refer the reader who may be anxious to start even with 
the history of the bird is that given by the great naturalist 
Edwards, who figured it on two plates, in his famous “Nat- 
ural History of Birds,” 1751. The species is said, however, 
to be included in the Fauna Suecica of the illustrious Swede, 
published at Stockholm in 1746, and again in 1761. These 
two quotations are the basis of “Loxia enucleator L.,” 1758, 
and in the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae, 1766, 
reference is made to a paper in the Transactions of the 
Swedish Academy, 1757, p. 139. 
Very shortly afterward, in 1760, Brisson published an 
original and independent description of the same bird, under 
i the name of the “Gros-bec de Canada” — “habitant in Can- 
ada” he says, “unde missai sunt ad D. Aubry , qui D. de 
\ Reaumur dono dedit.” Thus the American bird came in for 
notice almost as soon as the European. Brisson gave a recog- \ 
nizable figure of the male, as well as one of his usual elab- 
orate descriptions of both sexes. He called it in Latin Oocco- 
thraustes canadensis — a name revived in later times for use 
by those who attempted or made believe distinguish the 
American from the European bird. 
Another early synonym is found in the Dur-bec of the 
Count de Buflon — a term which became the usual French 
book-name of the bird, as pine grosbeak or pine bullfinch 
did the English one. Among the more prominent later 
synonyms may be noted Loxia flamingo of Sparrmann, Pini- 
cola rubra of Vieillot, and Loxia psiltacea of Pallas. As will 
be seen from a glance at any full list of synonyms, various 
other names have been imposed ; but they arise either from 
the assignment of the species to different genera, or from 
unsuccessful attempts to subdivide it into two Or more, 
Brehm having no fewer than five of these nominations, none 
of which are worth serious attention. No points in the 
synonymatic history of the species appear to require discus- j 
sion, as the list of names is perfectly plain, although quite j 
extensive. 
Though it is not my intention to treat the pine bullfinch 
at any length in its character of an Old World bird, a few ! 
words respecting its general distribution in Europe and Asia j 
will not be entirely out of place. What I have to say is j 
mainly derived from Dresser’s elaborate article upon this j 
subject. “This,” as he says, “one of the most strikingly 
beautiful of the Arctic birds, inhabits the high northern 
portions of both the Old and New World, only migrating 
southward when driven down by the rigors of the Arctic I 
winter. It has occurred in Great Britain, but must be ! 
looked on as one of the rarest of the stragglers that occa- j 
sionally visit our shores. ” The British authors are nearly J 
unanimous in attesting its extreme rarity in the United } 
Kingdom; but various authentic instances of its occurrence 
there, among some open to grave doubt, are recorded by 
Harting and Dresser. It is common in Scandinavia, breeding 
in the high north and wandering southward in winter. 
According to Degland and Gerbe, it is a rare and casual 
visitor in France, several authentic instances of its occur- 
rence in that country being recorded, though Dresser finds 
none from Spain or Portugal, and only doubtful ones from 
Italy. It is said never to straggle so far south as the Black 
Sea. To the eastward it extends across the continent of 
Asia, and has been found as far south as the Amoor country. 
, In the Himalayas it is said to be replaced by the Pinicola 
\ subhemachalana, . I 
So little has been learned of the nidification of the bird ini 
America, that for this portion of my narrative I turn also! 
to the work just mentioned, glad to transcribe so reliable 
and interesting an account ; 
“The mode of nidification of this bird was unknown until 
discovered in 1855 by the late Mr. Wolley ; and the particu- 
lars were first published by Mr. Hewitson in the following 
year (Eggs of Brit. Birds, 2d ed. i., p. 210,* pi. liii.*). Quot- 
ing Mr. Wolley, Mr. Hewitson says: ‘As the days grew 
longer I eagerly listened to the beautiful clear music of the 
bird in more than one locality; and one snowy morning I 
saw a hen watching me so very unconcernedly from a tree, 
that I climbed up to try to catch her in my hand. It was 
not till I nearly touched her that she flew off, as though she 
thought I was carrying the joke too far, but in a way that 
convinced me she had no nest. I had made arrangements 
for working another part of the country; but 1 left a trusty 
Lap in strict charge to visit a spot in Finland where I had 
ascertained that in previous years the bird had bred. On 
my return to that neighborhood at the end of summer, I 
watched day after day for the arrival of my faithful Lap. 
The nights were already becoming dark, when one evening 
I saw the well-known figure in a boat approaching our 
strand. I had scarcely shouted welcome before his wallet 
was in my hand and my English friends and myself were 
in triumphal procession to the house. First made its ap- 
pearance a grim wolf's head ; then came forth some reindeer 
gadflies; next there was extracted an unknown nest, then a 
skinned pine grosbeak; and at last were carefully unwrapped 
from a little case the wished-for ' eggs, and there they lay 
in all their fresh-discovered beauty before us. At midsum 
mer a nest was found with four fully fledged young about 
a hundred yards from the spot where the former nest had 
been. It is now in the British Museum. Externally it is 
f made of remarkably open work of twigs and roots, generally 
in very long nieces. In the center of the platform there is 
an inner bedding o'f barkless fibrous roots, with a little of 
the hair-like lichen which grows so abundantly on the trees 
in the Lapland forests.’ 
“I am indebted to Prof. Newton for the loan of a copy of 
the late Mr. Wolley’s notes on the breeding of this species, 
from which I extract the following description of the first 
nest obtained by him : ‘The nest was found by Piety, the trust* 
worthy Lap, in company with Mikel Badio. It was on the 
evening of the Second Heluntai (i. e. , 27th of May) that they 
went to KottaMello; a little above Yli-Kyro,on the same side of 
the river. The place was a little kind of dell where there 
were groups of small spruces. Piety first saw the bird fly 
up from the ground with some sticks or nest-lining in its 
mouth. It remained quite quiet and still, and they were 
some time before they found the nest, apparently com- 
pleted, but still without eggs, and placed about two fathoms 
from the ground in a young spruce three fathoms high. 
The branches near the nest, which' was not quite touching 
the bole, were thin, short and open. Several days after- 
wards the nest contained one egg, at the next visit there 
were two, and several days later there were four. The nest 
and eggs were now takeii, and it was found that the eggs 
were slightly sat upon. But first the old bird was snared, 
horse-hair nooses being fixed into the bole of the tree so as to 
stand out over the nest. . . . The Sadio lad says that he saw 
at least ten old nests thereabouts, and Piety says that he 
has also seen nests in similar situations, but never anywhere! 
else; i. e., there is always some favorite corner where they 
are placed year after year. At midsummer the lad found 
another nest, about a hundred yards off, containing four 
young birds scarcely ready to flv. He took it, and it is now 
in my possession. 'The nest which contained the eggs was 
pulled to pieces by the children in his house at Badio. The 
one before me is made externally of an extremely light net- 
work of thin trailing twigs laced into each other. One of 
these twigs completely encircles the nest and goes half way 
round it again, appearing to be about twenty-eight mc.ies m 
length This network of twigs is suddenly changed into a 
compact bedding of fine bare roots mixed with a few sprigs 
of hair-lichens, which form together almost a separate nest 
inside the outer network.” ,, ^ 
According to Mr. AY olley s notes, further cited by M.i . 
Dresser the nests are nearly always made in spruce trees: 
about twelve feet from the ground. Others than that just 
described differed in being lined with fine grasses and tree- 
hair- one was made entirely of fine trailing branches or run- 
ners’ chiefly of Linnaia borealis. The usual number of eggs 
appears to be four. Several clutches described by Dresser 
aif from Muonioniska “are pale blue, with the faintest 
oreenish tinge, rather darker in shade than those of the com- 
mon bullfinch, and are spotted and blotched with faint pur. 
plish underlying shell-markings and dark brown suriace- 
sDots. In size they average about lfa by inch. _ 
The nest and eggs of the pine bullfinch m America seem 
to have been first noted by the same author, to whom my 
readers are so much indebted already. The nest was in a 
tree and contained six eggs. It was discovered at Musquash, 
New Brunswick, July 6,°1863, by Mr Dresser’s brother Ar- 
thur. who saw both the parents, and described thorn so par- 
