82 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



sailing over the trees with his wings spread out, singing bobo- 

 link as sweet as can be. 



Here is what we call the Purple Finch, sometimes the Red 

 Linnet. It is a very sweet singer. 



Here is another bird of almost exactly the same colors 

 and the same shaped bill. This is a Canadian bird that we 

 have with us along in the winter, and very many people will 

 tell you most confidently that they saw a flock of robins yes- 

 terday. You will say it couldn't have been. But I have heard 

 people stick to it that they saw robins because they caught a 

 glimpse of these red birds. Only the males have this red color, 

 but they are also red on the back. It is a sort of a strawberry 

 or raspberry red. And you see the bird is almost as large as the 

 robin, although it has a shorter, thicker bill. This is called 

 the Pine Grosbeak. One peculiarity about it, is that you will 

 seldom see more than one male in a flock and sometimes 

 not that, and the females are all dull slate color. The females 

 are very tame and not very attractive looking birds. They eat 

 a great many different kinds of buds in the winter, especially, 

 as the name would imply, among the pine seeds and cones. I 

 have seen them come within a few feet of the house into the 

 maple trees and in an orchard where there are frozen apples 

 hanging on the limbs they will pick the apples open to get at the 

 seeds. 



Now these are only just a few of our commonest fairies. I 

 have here fairies of another kind. A great many of you people 

 have read Mrs. Gene Stratton Porter's book, "The Girl of the 

 Limberlost," and in that she has made the Yellow Emperor 

 famous. This is the Yellow Emperor that she speaks of. The 

 young lady had a dress made like it to wear to a ball and as 

 the ball began, through an open window one of these great 

 moths fluttered in, so that the people could see the resem- 

 blance between the moth and the dress. All the moths are not 

 as large as that. This came from St. Louis, but they are 

 raised even as far north as Portland, and Professor Hitchini's 

 says he has raised them in Massachusetts. 



Here are some of our commonest fairies that are with us 

 every night every spring, more or less, after the middle of 

 May through June in warm evenings. The Cecropia moth is 

 very common and yet there are very few people who see it. 



