“This species, like others of the genus existing in this country, as well as in the deer and squirrels, is infested with a troublesome larva of an œstrus in the summer and autumn, which, penetrating into the flesh, and continually enlarging, causes pain to the animal, and renders it lean. One of these larvæ dropped from an orifice in the throat of the hare which I have in confinement. It was of the usual cylindrical shape, but appears to differ in some particulars from the Œstrus cuniculi.”
EVENING GROSBEAK.
Fringilla vespertina, Cooper.
PLATE CCCLXXIII. Male.
This fine species of Grosbeak was first introduced to the notice of ornithologists by Mr William Cooper, who published an account of it in the Annals of the Lyceum of New York. Mr Schoolcraft observed a few individuals, in the beginning of April 1823, near the Sault Sainte Marie in Michigan, from which the species was traced to the Rocky Mountains. Dr Richardson mentions it as a common inhabitant of the maple groves on the Saskatchewan plains, whence “its native appellation of Sugar-bird.” The female remained utterly unknown until it was obtained by Dr Townsend, who found this Grosbeak abundant about the Columbia River, and procured a great number of specimens, several of which are in my possession. The following note from him contains all the information respecting its habits that I can lay before you.
“Columbia River, May 27, 1836.—The Evening Grosbeak, Fringilla vespertina, is very numerous in the pine-woods at this time. You can scarcely enter a grove of pines at any hour in the day without seeing numbers of them. They are very unsuspicious and tame, and I have, in consequence, been enabled to procure a fine suite of specimens. The accounts that have been published respecting them by the only two authors to whom I have access, Mr Nuttall and Prince Bonaparte, are, I think, in many respects incorrect. In the first place, it is stated that they are retiring and silent during the day, and sing only on the approach of evening. Here they are remarkably noisy during the whole of the day, from sunrise to sunset. They then retire quietly to their roosts in the summits of the tall pines, and are not aroused until daylight streaks the east, when they come forth to feed as before. Thus I have observed them here, but will not say but that at other seasons, and in other situations, their habits may be different. They are now, however, very near the season of breeding, as the organs of the specimens I have examined sufficiently indicate. They appear fond of going in large bodies, and it is rare to see one alone in a tree. They feed upon the seeds of the pine and other trees, alighting upon large limbs, and proceeding by a succession of hops to the very extremities of the branches. They eat, as well as seeds, a considerable quantity of the larvæ of the large black ant, and it is probable that it is to procure this food that they are not uncommonly seen in the tops of the low oaks which here skirt the forests. Their ordinary voice, when they are engaged in procuring food, consists of a single rather screaming note, which from its tone I at first supposed to be one of alarm, but soon discovered my error. At other times, particularly about mid-day, the male sometimes selects a lofty pine branch, and there attempts a song; but it is a miserable failure, and he seems conscious of it, for he frequently pauses and looks discontented, then remains silent sometimes for some minutes, and tries it again, but with no better success. The note is a single warbling call, exceedingly like the early part of the Robin’s song, but not so sweet, and checked as though the performer were out of breath. The song, if it may be so called, is to me a most wearisome one: I am constantly listening to hear the stave continued, and am as constantly disappointed. Another error of the books is this,—they both state that the female is similar to the male in plumage. Now, this is entirely a mistake: she is so very different in colour and markings, that were it not for the size and colour of the bill, and its peculiar physiognomy, one might be induced to suppose it another species. The specimens in possession of Mr Leadbeater of London, and from which Prince Bonaparte drew up his descriptions, must have been all males.”
In the present plate you will find the figure of a male only; but in Plate CCCCXXIV. are representations of the young male and adult female, which are however here described.
Fringilla vespertina, Cooper, Ann. Lyc. New York, vol. i. p. 220.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 113.
Evening Grosbeak, Fringilla vespertina, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Orn. vol. ii. pl. 14. fig. 1.
Coccothraustes vespertina, Evening Grosbeak, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 269.
Evening Grosbeak, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. Appendix, p. 594.