ON BOSTON COMMON. 27 



one of the smaller species feeding over its bot- 

 tom. Very picturesque they were, feeding and 

 flying in close order. Besides these must be 

 mentioned the yellow-throated vireo, the bay- 

 winged bunting, the swamp sparrow, the field 

 sparrow, the purple finch, the red-poll linnet, 

 the savanna sparrow, the tree sparrow, the 

 night-hawk (whose celebrated tumbling trick 

 may often be witnessed by evening strollers in 

 the Garden), the woodcock (I found the body 

 of one which had evidently met its death against 

 the electric wire), and among the best of all, 

 the chickadees, who sometimes make the whole 

 autumn cheerful with their presence, but about 

 whom I say nothing here because I have said so 

 much elsewhere. 



Of fugitive cage-birds, I recall only five — all 

 in the Garden. One of these, feeding tamely 

 in the path, I suspected for an English robin ; 

 but he was not in full plumage, and my conjec- 

 ture may have been incorrect. Another was a 

 diminutive finch, dressed in a suit of red, blue, 

 and green. He sat in a bush, saying iVb, no ! 

 to a feline admirer who was making love to him 

 earnestly. The others were a mocking-bird, a 

 cardinal grosbeak, and a paroquet. The mock- 

 ing-bird and the grosbeak might possibly have 

 been wild, had the question been one of lati- 

 tude simply, but their demeanor satisfied me to 



