The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-09
RARE WINTER BIRDS.
Boston People Enjoying Sight in tn.

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 Fenway and Other Parkways. Out in the Fenway, anywhere from the entrance off Massachusetts avenue to the Arnold Arboretum, says the Boston Transcript, on any pleasant day may be seen men and women, | sometimes singly and sometimes in groups, effacing themselves as much as may be against some friendly shrub, and gazing through field glasses out across the face of nature. Whatever may be the first guess of the passerby | as to the occupation of these people, it will probably be the wrong one, for | they are students of bird life, and they know that the winter of 1906-'07 has proved treasure-troye to ornithologists. Opinions differ as to the cause, but the fact has been established that vari- cities of birds whose home is in the far north, and which are in this latitude | only occasionally, and usually only one variety at time, are here this winter in numbers and together.
 In the mind of the average citizen, bird life and the summer months are ideas not easily to be separated. But those who have made birds a study re alize that while the personnel of the summer visitors is a fairly constant 1 quantity, it is the winter that every now and then brings the really distin- l guished strangers. They know, too, | that the park system of Boston, with l it's myriads of seed bearing shrubs, its streams and thickets and its tree cov- cred hills, is one of the most favorable | places in New England to observe the l habits of these winter tourists.
 Three varieties which the hunters with field glasses watch with the great est satisfaction are the pine grosbeak, the white-winged crossblll and the red poll. All of these birds come from 1 Greenland and Labrador The gros- beak was here four years ago, but the white winged crossbill, hs not been seen since the winter of 1S99-19OO, and the same is true of the redpoll as to its ap- pearance in any number, though few adventurous individuals may have been seen here and there in the course of the interval.
 l One of the delights of studying these birds is that coming from beyond the 1 habitatlons of man to the park system where all bird life Is protected they 1 have never learned fear and frequently allow a man to approch within four or l five feet, paying no more attention to | him than to d horse or reindeer. At | these times the watcher may put his field glasses away and stroll into the 1 very center of the flock.
 The pine grosbeak is the largest of the visitors, and the most easily dlstin- 1 guished, The adult male is nearly as large as a robin, nd his color is Q beau l tiful rose red The females and younger birds are gray, with orange and yellow markings on crown and rump. Several are found together and | as they feed they keep up soft cooing note, as though they were holding pleasant conversation with each other. They are of the sparrow family and are found among the seed bearing shrubs. The seed pods are crushed in the na- ticibly strong beak, which gives the birds their name,
 | The white winged crossbill, about the size of the English sparrow, is some times called the seven year bird,' though ornithologists insist that it's ap- pearance in this latitude at intervals of approximately seven years is the result merely of change. The northern birds, they say, come south not to escape the cold of a severe winter, but to find food
 when there is crop failure in their l own homes. These birds feed exclu sively upon the seeds in the cones of
 the evergreen trees, preferably of the hemlock They take their name from the curious crossing of the points of 1 the bill, which overlap. With this bill
 they are able to extract the seeds fror
 the ground. The variety Is marked b.
 white in double bars on the wing The adult male Is a rosy red and the fe- male of brownish olive. The American
 crossbil which nests in northern New England and is seen nearly every win
 ter lacks the white bars of his north CTS cousin, and the color of the male is brick red rather than rosy red.
 1 The redpoll which takes its name from the brilliant red thatch on the top of his head, is about the size of gold finch, and one of its calls Is not unlike that of the goldfneh It's body is