California Pine Grosbeak
515b. Pinicola enucleator californica. 8 inches.
These are one of the most unsuspicious birds that we have, and can be approached to within a few feet. The male is a bright red above and an ashy gray below, having much less of the red than his eastern relative. The female is a dull ashy gray, with a yellowish brown on the top of head and rump. They like the cooler places in which to live, and are found about the snow lines on the mountain, where they feed largely upon the seeds of the coniferous trees, in which they place their nests, making them of fine twigs and rootlets, and lining with grass and moss. They lay three or four eggs, light greenish blue, with splashes of brown and fainter markings of lilac (1.00 ×.70).