42 
BY THE wayside 
safe distance. They come from un¬ 
known homes in the Northern British 
forests, or perhaps far up in the un¬ 
explored regions of the Sierras, or 
from the Coast Range. No one has ever 
found their nesting place, and only one 
nest, and that apparently accidental, 
has ever been reported. They leave 
their summer feeding ground when se¬ 
vere winters drive them to the open 
country of Western Oregon and Wash¬ 
ington, here to thrive upon abundant 
food they find in maple tree seeds, etc. 
The huge size of the bill indicates the 
use which birds make of them in 
cracking pine cones. They are the 
most beautiful winter bird in our sec¬ 
tion, and one of the most beautiful 
birds that we have at any time of the 
year. The evening grosbeak has no 
song proper while with us, but has 
such a musical conversational note 
that we long some day to come upon 
the quiet family in their summer 
homes; where, if their love song is one- 
half as sweet as the songs of the other 
grosbeaks, we know it must be sweet 
indeed.” The bird of this region is 
called the Western evening grosbeak. 
I have seen the evening grosbeak 
during two different seasons about our 
home at Oregon, Illinois. The first 
time, in the spring of 1903, when they 
remained about six weeks; and in 
May of that year, T heard that sweet 
song which Mr. Lord desired so to 
hear, suggesting, in measure, the car¬ 
dinal grosbeak. Two or three years 
alter that, when the snows were very 
deep all through the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley, the evening grosbeaks again visit¬ 
ed Oregon, Illinois, and vicinity. One 
morning in January, when the snow 
lay deepest, a young friend came in 
haste from “the Dr. Mix Home”-to call 
me there to see a flock of these birds 
getting their breakfast on the lmck- 
berry trees that fringed the bank of 
Rock river and overhung the terraces 
and verandahs of that beautiful home. 
Every two or three days a great num¬ 
ber of them came there to feed on the 
hackberries, till they had eaten them 
all up. How long after they stayed in 
the neighborhood I could not learn. 
Their lodging place was on an island 
below the Burlington Railway bridge, 
two or three miles farther down the 
river,—a sheltered region hemmed in 
by the river bluffs and screened by 
timber. It is likely they had come 
down from Manitoba, following the 
“food line” southward, which they do 
when the winters are severe in that 
part of the country. The evening gros¬ 
beak of the Mississippi Valley is 
brighter colored than the Western ev¬ 
ening grosbeak, having not so much of 
the olive-yellow shade and old-gold of 
its Western confrere, but having the 
same white patch on the wings. “Bird- 
Lore” of November-Deeember, 1911, 
has a line colored plate of the evening 
grosbeaks. 
About the time 1 was making fre¬ 
quent trips to watch the evening gros¬ 
beaks at ITood River, the “Portland 
Oregonian” contained a long illustrat¬ 
ed article concerning the grosbeaks in 
general, and in which was the follow- 
ing, which is particularly interesting 
to us human creatures in these days of 
equal suffrage successes:—“The gros¬ 
beak family discipline is built upon 
equal suffrage lines. One day the 
father does all the marketing for the 
