A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
613 
within the truth, for the Tree Sparrow is certainly more abund- 
ant than this in winter in Massachusetts, where the food supply 
is less than in the western states, and I have known places in 
Iowa where several thousand could be seen within a space of a 
few acres. This estimate, moreover, is for a single species, 
while, as a matter of fact, there are at least half a dozen birds 
(not all Sparrows) that habitually feed on these seeds during 
winter. 
Farther south the Tree Sparrow is replaced in winter by the 
White-throated Sparrow, the White-crowned Sparrow, the 
Fox Sparrow, the Song Sparrow, the Field Sparrow, and 
several others ; so that all over the country there are a vast 
number of these seed eaters at work during the colder months 
reducing next year’s crop of worse than useless plants. 
In treating of the value of birds, it has been customary 
to consider them mainly as insect destroyers ; but the foregoing 
illustration seems to show that seed eaters have a useful func- 
tion, which has never been fully appreciated. — F. E. L. Beal . 
Family Fringillidae: Finches, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, Etc. 
Pine Grosbeak : Pinicola enucleator. W. V. 
« 
Length : 9.10 inches. 
Male: Heavy bill, giving it almost the appearance of a Parrot. Above 
general color strawberry-red , with some gray fleckings, deepest 
on head and rump. Wings and tail brown; some feathers edged 
with lighter brown and some with white. Below paler red, turn- 
ing to grayish green on belly. Bill and feet blackish. 
Female: Ash-brown, with yellowish bronze wash on rump, head, and 
breast. 
Song: “A subdued, rattling warble broken by whistling notes.” 
Season: A winter visitor whose appearance is as irregular as the 
length of its stay. 
Nest: Saddled on a branch or in a crotch. Twigs, roots, and fibres 
below, with a soft upper section. 
Eggs: 4, a greenish blue ground with dark brown spots. 
This finely colored Grosbeak comes to us only in winter, 
and can be easily identified at a season when such brilliant 
birds are rare. It is a resident of northern New England, 
and, however much it may wander about in the more southern 
states, it can only be regarded as an irregular and capricious 
migrant. 
