Brief Notes. 
/ 
The Pine Grosbeaks have been very num- 
erous at Andover this winter. Every time 
that I go out I meet with one or more flocks 
of from 5 to 20 feeding in the ash, pine and 
apple trees. The seeds of the ash are their 
principal food, but they also feed on the 
apples that remain frozen on the trees. 
November 1 first saw them, but there 
had been one or two others shot a few days 
before. 
I have shot 1 3 specimens, 4 of which were 
males and only one in the red plumage. 
There had been 8 or xo others in the red 
plumage shot here. I hope that other col- 
lectors are having as good success. 
0 __ „ E. Woodruff. 
. & O. Voi.18, Mar. 1893 p. 47 1 
Brief Notes. 
A word or two more about Pine Grosbeaks. 
As they are strangers here, this winter they 
created quite an amount of notice. Every 
day or two some one would ask the question, 
What new birds are these around here? On 
February 5 th, when I arrived home from 
church, my 12-year-old girl ran to meet me 
saying, “ O, papa, I have caught one of those 
Pine Grosbeaks ; he was so tame I put my 
hand right on him while he was eating horse- 
brier berries.” I have kept him (I say himj 
for I think it is a male, as he sings very' 
sweetly, although it has not the red plumage) 
in a cage since that time. Once a week I 
bring in a small pine tree and let “ Dick 
out for a nice time, which he seems to enjoy 
very much. He is very tame ; will alight on 
our heads and makes himself very much at 
home in general. He feeds freely on oats,, 
pine buds, sand, apple and other seeds, and 
has a very nice time bathing in a saucer of 
water. 
O.& O.V 0 I.I 8 , July, 1893 P.107 
The Pine Grosbeak in Confinement.— I have a male 
Pine Grosbeak ( Pinicola enucleator) in confinement, which 
was captured in the winter of ’82. He stood the hot weather 
in summer well and is now in fine condition, being fat and 
in full plumage. When caught he was of an ashy brown 
color, except back of head and rump were tinged with 
yellow. In the fall of ’88 he came out in a coat of bright 
yellow wings, and tail nearly black, wing bars white. I 
suppose he would have been red in place of the yellow if he 
had been at liberty. Last month (January) I captured three 
more, one male and two females, by slipping over their 
heads a slip noose made of horse hair and attached to a 
slender pole. So I have now two pair and am in hopes of 
getting a clutch or two of eggs this spring. I feed them on 
corn meal mixed with sweet milk, also apple seeds and 
beech nuts. They are especially fond of the buds of the 
pine and spruce and the seeds that they get from the cones. 
They are quite good singers, and both male and female sing. 
The former louder and more musical than the latter. 
Their song is generally a low warble audible but at a short 
distance, though they sometimes sing a louder note which 
somewhat resembles that of the Rose-breasted, ( Zamelodia 
ludoviciana). In answer to P. S. U. would say the red males 
are quite common here in winter. 
I am uncertain about the whistling sound made while fly- 
ing, but think it is not made by the wings. — G. F., Union , 
Maine. O.SsO. IX. .Apr. 1884. p. * i . 
\\ alkmgr with ms friend, the Naturalist, over j 
wintry but very pleasant roads and country 
paths lately, the Listener has been introduced 
The Pine Grosbeak. 
(. Pinicola Canadensis.) 
to the company of some very pleasing and beau- ),, t.,., im, t fl rK i Rnw „ i v. . 
tiful strangers whom he has found inhabiting ' 1 mSt SaW a Iai § e flocJi: ot 
the waysides and thickets. They are birds, 30 northern birds, and for the following 
quite naturally; gifilw very few other people i ■, 
■ 1 they were quite common. They 
live out of doors at this season; and they are 
birds of su6U beauty and such interesting 
and amiable ways that it is not a matter of won 
der that their occasional visits create something 
; “ teI * £*z “ » »*»»*«• 
summer tiftie within the arctic circle, arid con- 
descending in usual winters to come no further 
toward the-s weltering SoiMx than Canada or 
the White Mountains; but once in several 
years, as it seems, iiiMihg Massachusetts suffi- 
ciently hyperborean to suit their Singular taste 
in the matter of weather. They aro here cer- Wound, 
taiiily in great numbers now ; one can scarcely 
take a cotmtry wall, even quite neat to the d though always quite tame, these birds 
eity-for they are ifStfh the very least u shy , ear to be especially so in a snow storm. 
:e very tame, and I obtained as many 
jd specimens as I wanted. I saw sev- 
Is 
I common in winter ? I observed that 
r were always engaged in picking the 
Is from the cones of the Larch-trees, 
a few were generally hopping about on 
bird, but on the contrary a very tame one 
without encountering many of them, The 3 y seem 
other morning, when the Listener was out with 
totally unacquainted with the 
the Naturalist, upwards of 160 of the grosbeaks an Y missile; as, if a stone is 
were counted, and many of them certainly got )wn they never fly until it strikes some- 
away before they were counted. And on a ,, „ . , 
subsequent forenoon the Natu ralistvc mmted n Ideal’ tiiem. Towards the lattei’ part 
250 of them in several flocks. ~ 
fatnr alisiycon 
• vgjCy " 
the month, if disturbed while feeding, 
The pine grosbeak was evidently created for T would leave the immediate vicinity, 
fs ">■» ** *•* «■*** 
parrot or tanager and the mocking bird; for, as ily driven away from their feeding 
tho Listener can aver from aotuai observation, n , , 
the red plumage of tho mature male bird of this lin<aS ' Whenever they fly, they make 
species is splendid in the highest degree. The histling sound like a Wild Dove. Do 
proportion of these highly plum Aged males ,v , , ™ 
tliey make this with their wiugs ? 
k 
seems to be very small, since the Listener saw 
but one Of them on tho morning of Which be 
speaks. This fellow was first seen in the midst 
of his flock in a white ash tree by the roadside: 
presently he flew with the re$t over into a 
savin tree in a swamp just oyer the fence; and 
While most of the rest of the flock cam® dip- 
ping softly through the air back to the ash tree, 
chirping sweetly as they did so, this red one 
did not come, but slipped oyer into an elm tree 
further into the swamp and remained there, 
preening his fine feathers, for a considerable 
time, He allowed the Listener to creep 
up , within fifteen or twenty feet of lilto; and 
although, in thus approaching, it was necessary 
to make a great noise of crunching shoes in 
the frozen snow, and of parting and Snapping 
of alder bushes, the bird was not in the least 
disconcerted, and regarded his visitor merely 
curiously, not at all timidly; What a beauty he 
Was! His head and back were carmine-red, his 
breast rosy-red; his wings were almost 
black. With two distinct white bars upon 
them; his belly was a beautiful ashy-gray 
—a tint which shaded off delicately into, 
the rose of bis breast. His black bill, p 
was broad and thick, somewhat like j ce d in 
a peroquet’s,and the upper half of it hooked Over 
the lower bill a little, This bird, like all the 
rest, was about as large as a robin. He re- 
mained a lone time Oil the elm branch, plum ing 
himself, turning about how and iiian, looking 
very jolly and Contented, arid as if he were 
half inclined to come down and have a chat at 
closer quartets With the queer human visitor 
not ten feet below him AM not more than 
twenty feet away from hiii!. 
+ + + 
Meantime the minions of his flock—tho 
women and boys of the tribe, they Seemed to be 
“-were feeding very busily on the seeds Of the 
ash tree just hack by the roadside. You could 
hear their stout bills cracking the bard pods of 
the Seeds, and the long shells came fluttering 
to tho ground in a gentle shower. Now and 
then a few of the birds traversed the short dis- 
tance between the ash tree and the savin With 
a most graceful, drooping, swinging flight, giv- 
ing out a note more like the sweet twitter of 
the goldfinch than any other bird-sound the 
Listener knows, and eating a cedar-berry or two 
as a sort of * piquant sauce to thoir rather bitter 
dinner of ash-fruit. And they Were all so 
noticeably gentle and ainiabie in their ways! 
They seemed to have no fear Of their human 
visitors, so long as these were on foot ; but when 
a carriage came along the road and clattered ft quo jou sum. imunof siqx 
under their ash tree they all flow over into the 
swamp, gathering around tlieir red master in 
the elm. Ail these birds—except the red patri- 
arch — were for the most part of an ashen gray 
color, with darker wings and tails, and those 
same white wing-bars that their master had. 
They were very plump of body; but the Lis- 
tener has been toid that they are not good to 
Cat because their food is made up of such pun- 
gent articles as ash fruit, cedar berries and pine 
buds. At any rate, their extraordinary tame- 
ness indicates that they are not hunted much. 
-14 4 
As the Listener still stood, hobnobbing with 
his gorgeous new acquaintance, he was treated 
to an extremely pretty sight. Close by him the 
alder thicket overhung what had been a little 
pool ; and here a slight flow, ora little spring, 
or some such cause, had redeemed a little spaca 
of Water from the frost. To this snot a dozen or 
twenty of the grosbeaks now came to drink, 
chattering and twittering as they did so. They 
Were a lovely group of birds; the Listener 
might have tossed his hat into the midst of 
them as they danced about, drinking. They all 
seemed so gentlemanly ana indy-like and amia- 
ble that the Listener Was astonished beyond all 
power of expression to see two of the fattest of 
the ashen group get into a regular fight, which 
lasted for as much as three or four seconds, and 
was accompanied by some tin musical screeches. 
It. Was apparently a matter of disagreement 
over a thimbleful of water. But while he was 
watching this, the red grosbeak left the olm 
tree, and flaw away deep into th® swamp. One 
by one all the other birds followed him, show- 
ing no haste, twittering softly, maintaining 
their remarkably good manners, and leaving 
behind them a most agreeable impression. 
4-4 — !- 
The Naturalist says that the pine grosbeak is 
a particularly good singer, but as of course he 
sings in the nesting reason, ana as his mate 
builds her nest somewhere on the shores of 
Hudson’s Bay, or the banks of the Yukon, the 
Listener hardly expects to hear the song'. Our 
own region is tropical to him. Thank heaven 
that it has been warm enough for somebody the 
last few days! Ordinarily the flocks of these 
birds are found in the young ash trees along 
the roadsides, the fruit upon which is exceed- 
ingly abundant this winter. They seem to be 
very hearty eaters, though with their frequent 
journeys from one tree to another, they get a 
good deal of exercise in the intervals of their 
persistent banqueting. They are a most cheer- 
ful addition to our winter population, and 
render a walk delightiul—when the weather 
will permit it! JLir* * *t e --AU»iv7 
They 
were very fat and most of the specimens 
shot were in various stages of moulting. 
I saw these birds last winter also, but 
in comparatively small numbers, nor were 
there any red males among them. Have 
v* you heard of them in any other part 0 f 
CO the country as far south ? 
I send you these few facts as I find very 
V little in ornithological works in reference 
| to these birds— E. S. W., Southboro’, 
£ Worcester Co., Mass. 
■■ Fine Grosbeak appears to have 
uncommonly plentiful throughout 
England this season, probably owing 
severe winter which has been ex- 
the northern sections. Our 
ipondent ( Chas . C. Richards , JSTor- 
Conn.,) reports seeing them in large 
, and we have received numerous 
3 to the same effect from other 
ars. In severe winters they are occa- 
ly found even as far south as Penn- 
lia, but we have no report of their 
been seen there so far Th lggn n.n — 
•aSpapaouq jo uoijeoiunrauioo aqj ioj umipara 
ire se ji spuarauioo — ssauqsaij pue fCjaueA orj 
30 sji jo uoseai iCq— xCreip paqsqqtid 8 oj saqoejje 
>jui lexqjaAOid aqj, ’ua\o siq ueqj uajppqo la 
iSeinooua pue [njd[aq aAOid jqSuu uoijeoiiqnd sji 
juaiosun ‘apluiis ui suoijdposap ibutSuo aqj qjiM 
ue jo saouauadxa aq; jo pjooai e se pue ‘iCjiuioia 
. itq jo jsi[ e se sjsiSotoqjiuro oj jsaaajui aiqissod 
jpxse ‘jeqj pajsaS^ns jq§uoqj.iajje uy ‘ajii-piia 
ui uajpjiqo siq oj juaiuaSeinooua pue uoijomjs 
?aui jejuauiaiddns pue ajeALid e se XjTjiqeneAe sji 
jai leioads e iriaa jnq ‘saipnjs leoiSotoqjuuo umo 
> qj jo uopuoasoid aqj ui pue ‘uoisiaAip jeuosiad e 
•gglo^i xaoxviiaati 
T JffiVJ 
