V 
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Humming Bird, and it is worthy of remark that its breeding 
habits have been wrapped in considerable obscurity ; for, notwith¬ 
standing that it is very abundant in winter, no discovery of its 
nest was reported until 1875, when Mr. H. D. Minot, of Boston, 
found one, containing six young, in the White Mountains, in the 
month of July. The Meadow Lark, Golden-winged Woodpecker 
and Crow, all well-known birds at other seasons of the year, 
remain with us during the winter, although they abandon the more 
northern parts of New England. Besides the common birds I 
have mentioned, we find winter visitors which spend the summer 
very far north, for instance the Snow' Buntings and Shore Larks 
which are not uncommon in the bare pasture fields near the ocean 
and are often found in each other’s company. The Snowy Owl, 
another beautiful northern bird, is not very rare here, and in the 
winter of 1876-77 was unusually abundant in New England. 
This year we have been visited by a bird known as the Pine 
Grosbeak which inhabits the evergreen forests of the extreme 
northern parts of New England and is not usually found farther 
south, I cannot recollect ever having seen it before, but this 
season I have observed birds of this species on several occasions in 
Red Cross and Rhode Island Avenues. Mr. B. LaFarge tells me that 
he too, has met with them, and Mr. Jencks, a Providence ornithol¬ 
ogist, reports them in numbers from that city and its neighborhood. 
Very curiously, as has been noticed in other years when this Gros¬ 
beak has been plentiful in New England, almost all the birds are 
females and young, as we judge from their didl plumage. The full 
plumaged male is a very pretty pink bird, but Mr. Jencks says that 
he has only known of three being killed this winter, and, among the 
considerable number of Grosbeaks which I have seen, I caught a 
glimpse of only one which seemed to be an adult male. This bird 
is identical with the Pine Grosbeak of Europe, but no positively 
identified American eggs exist, I believe, in collections—except two 
found by Mr. Boardman near Calais, Maine, which are supposed 
to have belonged to this species, although the parents were not 
seen. During their visits to us, these birds seem very tame and 
have been caught and kept in cages. The cause of their sudden 
migrations is supposed to be want of food to the northward. 
Another species, occasionally seen at this season, though usually 
arriving somewhat later, is the beautiful little Cedar Bird, with 
