686 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
call notes could be heard from all parts of the Park, high up in the 
yellow pine trees/' Others were seen in the region about the same 
time. During the eight years of his acquaintance with the district he 
had never seen them so common (MS). 
At Santa Fe, Mr. Jensen states, in April and May, 1918, a flock of 
some fifty birds spent about six weeks on the campus of the U. S. 
Indian School. This was repeated in 1919 and in 1920. But in 1921, 
only sixteen were seen, staying only three days. In 1922, only a few 
birds were noted in April and May. In the fall, on a number of 
occasions, Mr. Jensen has seen quite large flocks on the Pinyon Flats 
around Santa Fe, feeding on juniper berries (1923b, p.462). In 1926, 
after the breeding season, the city of Santa Fe was visited by hundreds 
of the handsome birds, which remained to feed eagerly on the box 
elder seeds. For over a month, Mr. Ligon writes, they were so numerous 
in the box elder trees in the yards of residences and in the capitol 
grounds “that the shells of the winged seed, when the birds were busily 
feeding, fell like snow and covered the ground underneath the trees" 
(MS). In the winter of 1922-23, Mr. Jensen says, they were even 
more abundant. In Santa Fe, in the spring of 1927, thousands of Gros¬ 
beaks were seen daily in town, Mr. Jensen writes. They disappeared 
suddenly about June 8, and a few returned as suddenly about July 18, 
with young birds, so confirming Mr. Jensen's belief, from long years of 
observation, that large numbers of birds in a given area nest at the 
same time, in small colonies. 
In the spring of 1928, only a few of these ever erratic %vanderers 
occurring “not where one expects them to be" but “where you find 
them," were observed in the region of Santa Fe. When they had been 
found in Santa Fe Canyon at different times for about two weeks, as 
the nesting period seems short, on June 17, a careful search was made 
by Mr. Jensen and Mr. Talbot for their nests. Neither nests nor 
birds were found during the morning's hunt and, disappointed, the 
men were starting to drive back down the narrow mountain road 
when, suddenly, “a male Grosbeak flew low over the car, gave one call 
note and disappeared." With new zeal, the search was taken up again 
and, as Mr. Talbot says, “with great good luck," he discovered the 
nest. It was found on a steep timbered slope near the bottom of the 
canyon, in a Douglas fir about forty feet in height, and was on a hori¬ 
zontal branch an inch in diameter two and a half feet from the trunk 
and only fifteen feet from the top of the tree. 
At first glance, it is hard to realize that the eggs, shown in Mr. 
Talbot’s beautiful photograph, are actually in a nest, for the “small 
handful of sticks," loosely put together, without lining, is almost trans¬ 
parent. When it was discovered, with the mother brooding the eggs, 
such a fierce wind was raging that the small sustaining branch, well 
toward the top of the high fir, was being so “whipped about in all 
