The Birds' Calendar 



as to be entertained, so that when they are gone 

 you feel that the obligation is rather on your 

 own side. 



Occasionally it is worth wliile to glance even 

 at a flock of English sparrows, for one morning I 

 found among them a purple finch. To be sure, 

 sparrows are finches, and, as the German ex- 

 pressed it, " birds mit one fedder go mit dem- 

 selves; " but cousinship is a bond that is con- 

 veniently played ''fast and loose," according 

 to the social plane of the parties themselves, and 

 birds can be just as aristocratic and exclusive 

 as their human neighbors. 



In full plumage the purple finch is more car- 

 mine than purple, but at this season it is quite 

 nondescript, as if a large sparrow had been 

 dipped in a purplish carmine tincture and then 

 been washed off in streaks. It was very shy at 

 my approach, and between my anxiety to get 

 as near as possible, and my fear that it would 

 be frightened quite away, I was in a strait. As 

 it paused a moment, in flying from tree to tree, 

 it lured me on with that delicious carol that has 

 established its reputation as one of the finest of 

 finch songsters — a warble that suggests that 

 of the robin and bluebird, but more prolonged. 

 Some one has likened its song to that of the 



ii8 



