to its gentle, confiding temperament, may be easily tamed if properly treated. It becomes, in a few days, accustomed to confinement, taking its food readily from the hand, and will allow itself to be stroked, or even carried about the room, all the time testifying its happiness and content. It is an interesting sight to see a male and female bird in one cage, for their tenderness towards each other is extreme; but, alas! in one point they are deficient--they do not survive the loss of their freedom for any considerable length of time, and pine away rapidly, especially when their keepers forget that these children of the north must have fresh cold air, and foolishly confine them in hot rooms. The birds that come to us prove themselves almost entirely insensible to cold, and are lively and cheerful in the most severe winter weather. If shut up in a warm, close chamber, they will climb uneasily around their cage, open their beaks and pant, thereby showing how unbearable and injurious they find the heat of such an unwonted climate. Under favourable circumstances they will live for a year in confinement; but their plumage does not retain its beauty after the first six months, turning yellow and losing its brilliancy. It is best to keep them, even during the winter, in an unwarmed room, or still better in a cage hung outside the house. In its native state the Pine Grosbeak feeds upon the seeds of the fir-trees, which it picks out of the open cones or gleans from the ground. It will also eat many kinds of seeds or berries, and looks upon green weeds and the buds of trees as dainties. Tame birds are fed with linseed, rapeseed, and juniper or mountain-ash berries; they require a considerable quantity of food, as they are large eaters. It would seem that in summer they live extensively upon insects, especially flies, and with these they probably feed their young. We have but scanty knowledge of their manner of breeding. In one instance that came under our notice, the nest was made in a privet-bush about four feet high. It was very lightly built, and scarcely thicker than that of a hedge-sparrow, the outer wall being formed of dry stalks of plants, and the interior lined with horsehair. The brood consisted of four eggs of a beautiful bright blue, tinted at the broad end with reddish brown, and having a few chestnut-brown spots. In colour and marking they much resemble those of the Cherry Hawfinch. Only the female sits upon the eggs, but during her seclusion she is cheered by the song of her mate. THE CARMINE GROSBEAK.