{%>■*). 
attaches to the nomadic lives of the Bohemian waxwings, 
crossbills, redpolls, snow-buntings and the like, all of which 
scour our country in restless flocks during the off season of 
the year, searching for their precarious means of subsistence. 
We have no accounts of the summer residence of pine gros- 
beaks in the United States east of the Mississippi, excepting 
in Northern New England and New York, and the region 
of the great lakes, all along which stretches of the pine 
woods which the birds love invite them to a congenial sum- 
mer home. But, doubtless, when we know mote than we 
do now of the whole bird life of our great mountain ranges 
in the West, we shall find the pine grosbeaks all along them 
at certain elevations, as alpine but no longer boreal denizens | 
of the higher reaches of pine-clad mountains. We already i 
know of their breeding as far south as the Rocky Mountains j 
of Colorado, as they doubtless also do in the Sierras Nevadas 
of California. 
We have a number of records of the irregular appearance 
of the bird on the eastern side of the continent, as far south 
as Philadelphia and Washington, which seems to be about 
the limit of migration. Drs. Coues and Prentiss speak of 
it as “an exceedingly rare and probably only accidental 
visitant in severe winters,” in the District of Columbia. The 
parallel of 39 deg. north, may be given as roughly indicat- 
ing an extreme of its range, unless in the most exceptional 
instances. In Pennsylvania, according to Mr. Gentry, the 
pine grosbeak only occasionally occurs during the winter, 
reaching such latitude about the beginning of December, and 
inhabiting dense pine woods, which it forsakes in the spring 
to leave traces of its presence in the damage done to the 
buds of fruit trees before it takes its leave. The same 
author, noted for the attention he has paid to the food of 
our birds, presents a winter bill of fare which includes a 
variety of insects, besides the seeds of pines, firs, birches and 
junipers, to which is added in the spring the buds of 
maples, the tender young cones of pines, and a new set of 
bugs. In Southern Now England, writes Mr. Merriam, the 
pine grosbeak is an irregular winter visitant in Connecticut, 
though Messrs. Coe and Sage, of Portland, Conn., informed 
the writer that the bird was to be found there every 
winter, from the latter part of November to the middle of 
March. Further north than this, it is scarcely necessary to 
trace the bird’s history in winter; for it directly becomes a 
regular winter visitant, if not resident, though its move- 
ments still depend more or less upon the vicissitudes of the 
weather. One of the records, however, may be here tran- 
scribed, as showing in what multitudes these rovers some- 
times make their appearance. 
“In the winter of 1835, and for several following seasons,” 
writes Dr. Brewer, “these birds were exceeding abundant 
i in the vicinity of Boston, [Mass.]. They appeared early in 
: December, and remained until quite late in March, feeding 
chiefly on the berries of the red cedar, [ Juniperus virginianus) , 
They were so unsuspecting and familiar that it was often 
possible to capture them alive in butterfly nets, and to knock 
them down with poles. Large numbers were destroyed and 
brought to market, and many were taken alive and 
caged. They were tame, But unhappy in confinement, utter- 
ing mournful cries as the warm weather approached. In 
the winter of 1869-70 they again made their appearance in 
extraordinary numbers, in a lew localities on the sea coast 
of Massachusetts, where they did considerable damage to the 
fruit buds of the apples and pear.” 
The Ohioan and Illinoisean authorities concur in accredit- 
ing the pine grosbeaks to their respective States, but only in 
the usual character of winter visitants, and in the northerly 
parts alone. It may be remembered that Dr. Cabanis 
records from Illinois a specimen upon which the name 
Pinicola canadensis was originally based. It is quoted in Pro- 
fessor Snow’s list as a rare winter visitant in Kansas, as far 
south as Leavenworth. Turning westward now, we directly 
find that the greater part of the country is ill adapted to the re- 
quirements of this bird, and that consequently it is confined to 
mountainous regions, where its much-loved conifers flourish. 
I can present no record as a voucher for its appearance 
even casually in New Mexico or Arizona, but it is common, 
and it breeds, in more elevated regions environing the 
basin of the Colorado River. The bird finds its most 
southerly extension, and likewise the most southerly breed- 
ing range, in the Rocky Mountains. I lately had the pleas- 
ure of first publishing some notes, furnished by Mr. T. M. 
Trippe, which substantiate these statements, although the 
latest formal biography of the American bird makes no 
allusion to the important information furnished through my 
valued correspondent. Mr. Trippe’s observations, made at 
Idaho Springs, in Colorado, are to the following effect: 
The pine grosbeak is irregularly distributed in that part of 
the mountains, where it was observed throughout the sum- 
mer and fall months in the woods near timber line. It does 
not descend much below such elevation, not having been seen 
under 9,500 feet, even in the depth of winter, though strag- 
glers probably reach even the foothills. Its food is chiefly 
the seeds of the pine, birch and alder, but the birds occasion- 
ally descend to the ground to pick up other kinds, and prob- 
ably insects as well. It has a very pleasing song, clear, sweet 
and flowing, like that of the purple finch. “I cannot say at 
what season it breeds, but am inclined to think that it must 
be very early, as young birds are fully feathered and have 
left their parents in June, before the snow has disappeared 
from the woods.” 
Mr. Nelson has given us the record of the occurrence of 
pine grosbeaks in abundance in June and July at Fort 
Bridger, Utah. For California, our principal authority, as 
would be supposed, is Dr. J. G. Cooper. According to this 
writer, “this beautiful bird is not uncommon near the sum- 
mits of the Sierra Nevada, lat. 39 deg., in September, and 
doubtless breed there, as I obtained two fine specimens in 
the young plumage. . . . They were feeding on spruce 
seeds when I first saw them, and still lingered about, after 
two had been shot, as if waiting for their comrades. Soon 
descending to some shrubby alders to eat their seeds, then to 
the ground, where they hopped about for some time, uttering 
a low chirping note, and allowing us to go within a few feet 
of them.” In a later communication, made to the California 
Academy of Sciences, Dr. Cooper thus alludes again to the 
same birds: “A specimen which I shot in August, 1870, 
near the summit of the Pacific Railroad pass, over the Sierra 
Nevada, was of a fine orange-red color, but beginning to 
moult. This plumage, which is not described by Baird, is 
stated by Nuttall to be the most adult condition of the 
species, the carmine-red characterizing younger birds. It 
may, however, be a fading change, like the yellow seen in 
caged birds of some other red species.” I may add that 
Dr. Cooper’s surmise is undoubtedly correct. In any event 
the carmine-red is certainly the normal perfect plumage, 
other shades of red indicating decay, decline, fading of the 
plumage, or other ill condition. 
6S 
