BECOMING AN ILLUSTRATOR 39 



who had been United States consul to Mexico, 

 came home bringing me a wonderfully trained 

 black-headed grosbeak which he had gotten from 

 an Indian bird dealer in the market at Saltillo. 

 This bird was black over the head and back, black 

 on his wings and tail with touches of white, wear- 

 ing a vest of warm, rotten apple brown. He was 

 a magnificent singer, having sweeter notes than his 

 rose-breasted cousin, and delivering them with 

 more joyous spontaneity than the oriole. His 

 call note was loud, clear, and sweet. He had an 

 individual manner in rendering his stage perform- 

 ances which was as new to me as his person; for he 

 was "a stranger in a strange land." He sang his 

 full strain at the top of his voice. Then he dropped 

 to a minor tone and sang exactly the same song, 

 note for note; and then, with distended throat and 

 beak so nearly closed that it could barely be seen 

 to move, he gave the same performance pianissimo. 

 Every note was given its full value but many times 

 diminished to such mere threads and whispers of 

 sound that I had to stand near him and listen in- 

 tently to verify the notes. His strain was two or 

 three times as long and much sweeter than that 

 of his cousins the evening or rose-breasted grosbeak. 

 As I did not know the history of his youth it ap- 

 pealed to me that he might have been taken from 

 a nest when young and reared in the home of 

 a professional bird-catcher, where he learned the 

 notes that made up his repertoire from old birds 



