182 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



and parks of any city that he graces with his presence 

 and enhvens with his songs. No selfish recluse is he ; 

 no, indeed ! In no dark gulch or wilderness, far from 

 human neighborhood, does he sulkily take up his abode, 

 but prefers the companionship of man to the solitudes 

 of nature, declaring in all his conduct that he likes to 

 be where there are " folks." In this respect he bears 

 likeness to the English sparrow ; but let it be remem- 

 bered that there the analogy stops. Even his chirrup- 

 ing is musical as he flies overhead, or makes his caveat 

 from a tree or a telegraph wire against your ill-bred 

 espionage. He and his plainly clad little spouse build 

 a neat cottage for their bairns about the houses, but 

 do not clog the spouting and make themselves a 

 nuisance otherwise, as is the habit of their English 

 cousins. 



This finch is a minstrel, not of the first class, still one 

 that merits a high place among the minor songsters ; 

 and, withal, he is generous with his music. You might 

 call him a kind of urban Arion, for there is real melody 

 in his little score. As he is an early riser, his matin 

 voluntaries often mingled with my half-waking dreams 

 in the morning at dawn's peeping, and I loved to hear 

 it too well to be angry for being aroused at an unseason- 

 able hour. The song is quite a complicated perform- 

 ance at its best, considerably prolonged and varied, 

 running up and down the chromatic scale with a swing 



