A Book on Birds 



follow after and try to catch him and thus 

 be led afar and wide from his rough home 

 of sticks, with its two white eggs. And 

 he is not the only bird who goes through 

 this performance, or many another, with 

 the same object in view. 



So, going back to the point we started 

 with, do not be disappointed in your quest- 

 ing these golden hours, if you hear much 

 but see little. 



And yet, after all, there will be excep- 

 tions to this rule and many a bright feast 

 for the eye even now. Indeed the brightest 

 of all awaits you if you go far enough; 

 for the Scarlet Tanager is about and I 

 have always thought it is he who likes to 

 sit still and be looked at and admired 

 more than any bird we have. 



Nor can he fairly be blamed if he does, 

 his beauty being almost beyond descrip- 

 tion. All other color in the forest pales 

 before his splendid, royal carmine, made 

 almost luminous against the living green 

 by the sharp contrast of jet black eyes 

 and wings. Sometimes when the sunlight 



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