Evening star., 1947-02-03
This and That
By Charles E. TrdcepeH.
"QUINTANA PLACE.

e"Dear Sir: -sa
This morning while on my way to
work I heard one of our feathery
friends in holly tree.
THE call, to me, was strange, conse-
quently stopped to look for the bird
which finally was pointed out to me
by a young lady who also had heard
1t and was curious.
THE call-tcheck, check-sounded
somewhat like that of a grackle and
was almost continuous.
HE was having his breakfast of
holly berries and paid no attention to
us, although we talked freely and were
within feet of him.
HE had a beak like a cardinal, the
shape of sparrow but was much
larger, nearly the size of a robin.
His underside was a grayish white
and the remainder of his body about
the color of dove or slightly darker,
with no variation of shade.
His tail was long and narrow. From
beak to top of tail he probably was
about 9 inches long.
Il have lived in Washington for four
years and have not seen the bird before
Nor have I seen it elsewhere. I would
appreciate you telling me what it is.
yours truly, w. w. G."
X X X
This bird probably was female
evening grosbeak.
A few of these interesting birds have
been seen here this winter, but in no
such numbers as were here the pre-
vious winter.
Grosbeaks are about 8K4 inches long
The males are yellow and black, the
females gray and black.
The female is, above, deep smoke
gray, the head darker, the throat and
the abdomen are white, the rest of
the underparts light buff-gray, tinged
with yellow; the wings dull black with
some gray and white.
Tails of grosbeaks are not long, SO
in this respect our correspondents de-
scription does not tally, but it is easy
to make such mistakes on looking at
a bird for the first time.
The huge fat yellowish conical bill
is the distinguishing trait.
This is a friendly bird and is not
afraid of people.
The call is short and CHEEKY.
The grosbeak is fond of buds and
seeds of trees, and while in the East
has shown a great fondness for sun
flower seeds.
1t is said to eat seeds taken from
frozen apples, and at times will eat
oats Specimens held in captivity would
not take insects.
The year 1915 was the first migration
of the evening grosbeaks to the East.
To this must now be added the first
months of 1896 Whether 1947 deserves
tn he added remains to be seen but
the winter is getting late, and so far
only few of these birds have ap-
peared.
This is one species that always at
tracts attention, since it scarcely looks
like any other.
Grosbeaks, including the pine gros-
beak, belong to the flnches, largest
family Of birds Finches are essentially
seed eaters, as their large, strong bills
show.
In the finches come not only all of
the various sparrows, of which 19 differ
ent ones come to Washington and
vicinity, but also the purple finch and
that gay thistle bird, the common gold
finch or wild canary.
Scientists have estimated that these
birds, through their eating of weed
seeds, save the farmers of America
many millions of dollars each year
Finches are divided commonly into
four groups, the buntings, grosbeaks,
sparrows and finches. The first word
means dumpy, the second, OF course,
refers to the thick bills: the word
sparrow" means flutterer; as for
"finch," the original meaning is un-
| known.