VALUABLE GROSBEAK EGGS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2172, 10 March 1903, Page 2

VALUABLE GROSBEAK EGGS.

Dollar* Each Received by a bad AVho Caught tom* of the lUrddg

Last February, when. tlie temperature held at zero for a week at a time and the snow was falling every other day, Hector Sanborn, aged 15, set horsehair snares about his home and caught more than two dozen pine grosbeaks. Most of them were fesays a report from Dexter, Me. He kept the birds in a large, open end well-lighted room at the rear of the barn and fed them on seeds end refuse fruit. While the weather continued cold the birds were most healthy and took kindly to the new way of life, becoming fat and frisky, with nothing to do but eat and sleep. In March several pairs mated, built nests and begun to lay* eggs, and by April 1 the boy hud secured 34 fine specimens.

Then the spring weather came and caused the birds to have convulsions, from which nearly one-half died. Finding that he would be unable to keep his pets through the summer, j'ouiig Sanborn liberated the survivors, allowing them to go north and seek more congenial temperature.

The boy has received an offer of four dollars for every pine grosbeak egg he could spare. He at once shipped 30 to the boston naturalist who wished to complete a collection of rare eggs, and a few days ago he received a check for $.120. If next winter proves to be ©old enough to drive the grosbeaks to Maine the boy can see a big fortune on easy terms.