280 FlNCIlES, SPARROWS, ETC.

States. At irregular intervals it invades the northern Mississippi Valley in numbers, while still more rarely it extends its Vanderings to the north Atlantic States. It t'avels in flocks of from six or eight to sixty individuals which by their tameness show their igno 'anee of man and his ways. They feed largely on the buds or seeds of trees— maple, elder. and box elder. Their notes are described by different observers as a shrill “ cher'py-teel," and a “ frog-like peep," while one writer remarks that “the males have a single metallic cry like the note of a trumpet, and the females a loud chattering like the large Cherry Birds (Ampelis move/1m.” Their song is given as a wander- ing, jerky warble, beginning low, suddenly increasing in power, and as suddenly ceasing, as though the singer were out of breath.

During the winter and early spring of 1890 there was a phenom- enal incursion of Evening Grosbeaks into the Northern States, ac- counts of which, by Amos W. Butler, will be found in The Auk, ix, 1892, pp. 238—9417; x, 1893, pp. 155—157.

515. Pinicola. enucleator (Liz/11.). I’LVE (iIIUSIH-ZAK. Ar]. 6.—

Slaty gray, more or less strongly washed with rose—red. strongest on the

crown, rump, upper tail-eoverts, and breast; wings t'useous, their eoverts edged with white: tail t'useous. All. 9 .—.\‘lat_v gray, ernwn. upper tail—cow crts. and breast more or less strongly washed with (dive-yellow; wings and tail as in the 5. 1/H.—Resembles the 9‘ l... ‘J-Os; \V.,4':}G: T., 3'67; 1%.,‘54.

[Kenya—m"Northern portions of the northern hemisphere. breeding far north ; in winter south, in North Ameriea. irregularly to the northern United States.”

Washington. casual in winter. Sing Sing. irregular \V. \'., Dec. 18 to Apl. 12. Cambridge, irregular W. \'.. ti‘etpn-ntly eommon. sometimes abun— dant. Nov. to Meh.

Nest, ot'twigs and rootlets lined with finer materials, in coniferous trees a few feet up. l:'{/{/~'."1’>alegreenish blueispotted and blotehed with dark brown surfaee markings and lilae shell spots, 1‘05 x '74.”

The Pine Grosbeak. like the Spruce Partridge and Canada Jay, may be said to find its true home in the eoniferous forest or Canadian belt, which crosses the continent diagonally from Maine to Alaska.

Like many of its eongeners in this inhospitable region. it nests so early in the springtime that the winter‘s frost and snow are still dominant among the evergreens when the eggs come to claim the at- tention ot' the pair.

Its habits at this season are but little known. as very few natural- ists have had the opportunity of seeing it in its native pine Wood.

int in midwinter. when it comes southward in search of food, it is a well»known frequenter. in flocks, of plantations of mountain-ash trees, or groups of sumaeh bushes. whose unfallen berries provide it with a bountiful supply of nourishing diet.