Ha o i a l udoviciana . 
Concord, Mass . 
Nest , 
# 189S. 
May 20. 
Spent two hours or more immediately after breakfast ram- 
bling about in the woods on and behind Ball's Hill. " 
On the south side of Ball's Hill a female vj-rosbeak was ao 
work on her nest which she had only just begun . It was in a 
very unusual situation about 30 ft. above th« ground near 
extremity of a long, horizontal branch ox a white pine in the 
middle of a dense cluster of green needles. The bird was 
collecting long, slender dead twigs. 
These she broke off the 
ends of the branches flying upward, seizing them in her bill, 
then dropping backwards and utilizing her weight precisely as 
the Trogons do when breaking off berries in Trinidad, bhe 
appeared to prefer the twigs of the high blueberry. Not once 
1899. 
May 20. 
I 
did she get any material from the ground. The male did not 
offer her any assistance but he sang gloriously in an oak near 
the pine all the time she was at work. 
Nest -building . 
Saw two x^airs of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks this morning, 
one near the cabin, the other on the river slope of the Blake- 
more woods. Both females were collecting building material 
and I saw the Blakemore Hill bird go to the nest which -was in 
the top of a tall slender [tree] on the hillside about 40 yards 
from the river. The males followed their mates closely but 
rendered no assistance whatever. Neither sang but both kept 
