10 TH BY A-UiDU BON, (BUILD neta 
with another brood. I have seen the father bringing food to the dainty 
little fawn colored birds when as yet they showed no sign of the color that 
later was to be theirs. The cardinals often raise two, and sometimes three, 
broods in a season. 
The rose-breasted grosbeak is not as common about the yards and homes 
of men as is the cardinal, but it sometimes nests in a tree of a well-shaded 
city street. I have seen a male bird incubating in an apple tree of a home 
within a block of one of the principal streets of Urbana, Illinois. In the 
spring the birds may sometimes be seen in cemeteries and in public parks. 
When they fly, the rose-colored linings of the male birds’ wings are strange- 
ly beautiful. The wings of the sparrow-like females have lemon-colored 
linings. The black of the bird’s rump, wings, and tail is impressively 
marked with spots and blotches of white. Next to the cardinal the rose- 
breasted is the most common grosbeak of the Chicago region. 
The male birds usually come first and when the females appear they 
receive much attention. Four to six males may sometimes be seen courting 
one female. The rival birds sing and fight at the same time and sometimes 
draw blood from each other. Then when the battle is over the formerly 
indifferent female flies off with the victor. 
The song of the rose-breasted grosbeak is ‘‘a loud, sweet, luscious 
warble.” T. S. Roberts has said that there “is nothing more beautiful in 
the way of a warbled song in all the Northern woodlands.” The female 
also sings short snatches of a warbled song. Both frequently sing while 
incubating the eggs. When not incubating, the male bird’s song is usually 
given from near the top of some tall tree. Ordinarily the birds rear but 
one brood annually. 
The food habits of the rose-breasted grosbeak give it high place among 
the friends of the farmer. It is one of the few birds that eat potato-bugs 
in large quantities; hence it is known as the “potato-bug bird.” One-tenth 
of the rose-breasted grosbeak’s food is made up of this insect. One must 
reluctantly admit that it is also fond of garden peas, but any harm done 
cn this account is more than compensated for by the bird’s destruction of 
noxious insects. 
The extreme neatness of the rose-breasted grosbeak has often been 
noticed. He is a very clean bird and his nest is always clean. He leaves 
no litter about. Whatever he breaks up for food is never scattered about, 
but the remnants are left in small, inconspicuous piles. If all human beings 
were as particular as he is, public picnic grounds would be greatly im- 
proved in appearance. 
The black-headed grosbeak is in the West the counterpart of the rose- 
breasted bird of the East, and has much of the same habits and tendencies. 
Its range extends to eastern Nebraska and eastern Kansas. 
Like the rose-breasted grosbeak, the black-headed bird assists in the 
incubation of the eggs. Edward Howe Forbush tells us that he keeps the 
nest during the greater part of the day and the female takes charge at 
night. I have seen both birds upon the nest at different times during a day. 
In small communities the birds frequently nest in the trees near dwell- 
