A NOTABLE QUARTETTE 289 



many of them are. As to his voice, it is of superb 

 timbre. 



Another characteristic noted was that the buntina-s 

 do not throw back their heads while singing, after the 

 manner of the sparrows, but stretch their necks forward, 

 and at no time do they open their mouths widely. 

 As a rule, or at least very often, when flying, they 

 do not begin their songs until they have almost 

 reached the apex of their triangle; then the song 

 begins, and it continues over the angle and down the 

 incline until another perch is settled upon. "What 

 Lowell says of " bobolinkum " is iust as true of buntincj- 

 — " He runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air." 

 As the sun went down behind the snow-clad mountains, 

 a half dozen or more of the buntings rolled up the full 

 tide of song, and I left them to their vespers and 

 trudged back to the village, satisfied with the ac- 

 quirements of this red-letter day in my ornitholoo-i- 

 cal journey. 



However, one afternoon's study of such charming 

 birds was not enough to satisfy my curiosity, for no 

 females had been seen and no nests discovered. About 

 ten days later, more attention was given them. In a 

 meadow not far from the hamlet of Arvada, between 

 Denver and the mountains, I found a colony of 

 buntings one morning, swinging in the air and furnishing 

 their full ([uota of the matutinal concert, in which many 



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