Strange Visitors.

We are indebted to Mr. Chamberlain for the following interesting description of the strange birds which have recently appeared in the yard:

A throng of visitors to the college yard yesterday attracted considerable attention by their strange appearance and u usual manners. They were Pine Grosheaks, and so seldom have birds of their species been seen in our vicinity that of the crowds who watched the flock. few recognized them or could name them.

The finch - for it is one of the finch family - is about the size of a Robin but of stouter build, with short neck. a round head and thick strong bill. The colors vary with age and sex. In immaturity the prevailing tints are yellowish brown, or bronze as it as often termed, and ash or slate gray. Mature females are of a rich yellowish bronze and ash while old males wear a rosy tint which sometimes changes to deep carmin, on head, rump and breast.

The flock in the yard are chiefly young birds though a few bear a tinge of red on the rump and one or two bright colored males are with the party.

But such manners as there birds assumed - such calm repose, and dignity in the presence of strangers, such indifference to the menace alike of small dog and "mucker," such unbird like fearlessness had never before been seen. They sat on the snow under the trees just back of University Hall, eating the seeds that had fallen, permitted the curiours to approach within a yard or two without manifesting the slig test timidity. "What makes them so tame?" everyone asked.

The man who "knows all about it" was on hand and said that the home of the bird is in the far north - in the most northern bed of coniferous forests and forests and that they are so seldom harrassed there that they know absolutely nothing of danger. Almost all Arctic birds are tamer than more southern bred species, but the Pine Grosbeak is the least timid of the Arctic race.

Every winter these birds appear along the northern frontier of New England, but it is only at rare intervals that they come in numbers so far south as Boston, though a few may be found in suitable places almost every season. This year they first appeared about the first of November and +++ have represented them in large numbers over all of these northern states.

Those who have had the rare good fortune to meet with this bird in the summer home say that is love - song is a delightful bit of bird melody, sweet and tender but with a wild plaintive ess which makes it peculiarly attractive, though it is delivered in such low tones that the listener must bevery close to the bird to hear it.

The winter song is much more vigorous, but as the birds seldom sing the song is not well known. Our present visitors have uttered no sound but a rather plain. live chirp and a wild though sweet call note.