STATE GEOLOGIST. 
379 
tlie same flock. The food of the northern birds while here consists of 
mountain ash berries, wild grapes, smilax berries, wolf-berries, high- 
bush cranberries, decayed fruit, especially apples, thrown out from 
stores or kitchens and such other palatable vegetable substances as 
they can find. Hut as spring opens, their food becomes largely insec¬ 
tivorous. and their habits accordingly undergo a marked change. They 
are no longer so familiar or such frequent visitors to hack yards and 
alley ways; but are instead much more retiring and refined in habits. 
They capture the insects on the wing in the manner of flycatchers, and 
a whole Hock may often be seen thus engaged for an hour or more at a 
time. Examination has shown that the insects just taken consist 
mainly of minute coleoptera, thousands ef which must appear in the 
air with the disappearance of the snow. 
25. Hesperiphona vespertina. (Coop.) Bp. Eveving Grosbeak. —A 
quite regular visitant but rather local in distribution and limit¬ 
ed in numbers. It generally arrives in the southeastern part of the 
State in the early part of December, but sometimes much earlier, as 
in the fall of 1880, when the writer saw a flock of five in Isanti Co., on 
Oct. 28. It is one of the last of the winter birds to retire, remaining 
usually until the second or third week in May. (May 17. 1876. May'6, 
1877, May 18, 1879.) 
The male evening grosbeak is a beautiful bird being arrayed in a plumage of 
black, white, yellow and a peculiar '‘dusky olive,” the colors hand¬ 
somely contrasted or evenly shaded the one info the other. The le- 
male is much plainer, but the species may always be recognized by the 
short but very large conical bill, which ic generally greenish horn 
color. 
Like the wawings the grosbeaks appear to court rather than shun the society 
of man. They are very tame aud will spend an entire season about a 
city, having their headquarters at some central grove and frequenting 
the busiest thoroughfares to feed with entire unconcern upon the box- 
elders planted by the walk as shade*trees. It is from the keys of the 
box elder and sugar maple that they derive their chief sustenance, and 
it is surprising to see the adroitness with which they remove the tiny 
kernel from its dry husk with their clumsy looking bill. Their princi¬ 
pal utterance is a clear piping note delivered with much energy by male 
and female alike. They have also a weaker, screaming note which 
usually serves as an accompaniment or undertone to the general choral 
performance which is their most common way of expressing themselves 
when settled in some quiet spot. As a friend remarked upon listening 
for the first time to one of their united efforts, the general effect is very 
much like that produced by a lot of frogs piping in a woodland marsh 
on a still summer evening. 'There is an unread chapter in the history 
of the present bird, which, together with the fact that it is nowhere 
very common, causes it to be of more than usual interest to the ornith¬ 
ologist. Its nest and to a great extent its summer home and habits 
are as yet unknown. 
26. Pinicola enucleator (Linn) Cab . — Pink Guosbkak — A bird a little 
less in size than the robin: slate colored, with brassy yellow or reddish 
