face white. Once on a time, a whole flock of them were discovered in the cur- 

 rant rows of a mountaineer, who called on the gods of the woods to punish them, 

 since he himself was unable to overtake the thieves. The gods, willing to appease 

 the old man, yet loving the grosbeaks better, dyed their beaks crimson from that 

 moment, and set black masks on their faces. Thus was a favor done to the 

 cardinals, for ever after the juice of berries left no stain on their red lips, 

 while the black masks set off their features to the best advantage, interrupting 

 the tint of the beak and the head. He is no ecclesiastic, though he wear the red 

 cap of the cardinal, which he lifts at pleasure, for he gets his living by foraging 

 the woods and gardens for berries at berry-time. 



The cardinal's companion is modest of tint, ashy brown with only traces 

 of red below, deepening on wings, head and tail. Bird of the bush is she, and 

 she places her loosely made nest in the thicket, where she can easily obtain bark 

 fiber and dry, soft leaves and grass. In it she sees that three or four chocolate- 

 dotted eggs, like decorated marbles, are placed. And she repeats the family 

 history two or three times a season, where the season is long. At first the lips 

 of the baby birds are dark ; but they soon blush into the family red. In plumage 

 they resemble the mother for a time, but before cold weather the males put on 

 a coat of red with the black mask. 



In the respect of molting the cardinals differ from their young cousins, 

 the rose-breasted, the latter requiring two or three years to complete the tints 

 of adult life. 



But born in the thickets are the rose-breasts, just like the cardinals, the 

 nest being composed of the selfsame fibers and woodland grasses. Strange craft 

 of Mother Nature is this, to bring the rose-breast and the cardinal from eggs of 

 the very same size and markings. But so she does ; so that a stranger coming 

 upon either nest in the absence of the mother bird might mistake it for that of 

 the other. You can't be certain until you see the old birds. 



The rose-breasted grosbeaks are found east of the Rocky Mountains and 

 north into Canada. It migrates south early, and returns to its sumiuer habitat 

 rather late in spring. Tlie lips of the rose-breast are white, not red, while the 

 feet are grayish blue, dift'ering from the brown feet of the cardinal. 



How did it come by its breast ? Why, legend has it that the breast was white 

 at the start. One day he forgot himself, not knowing it was night, he was so 

 happy singing the funeral hymn of a robin-redbreast that had died of a chill in 

 molting time, as birds do die when the process is belated. And the grosbeak 

 sang on, until a night-owl spied him and thought to make a supper of a bird so 

 plump. But the owl mistook his aim and flew away with only a beakful of the 

 breast feathers, he not taking into account the nearness of the molt. The gros- 

 beak escaped, but lacking a vest. 



The robins gathered pink wild-rose leaves and laid them on the heart of 

 the singer, not forgetting to line the wings, and so from that day to this the 

 psalm singer is known as the rose-breasted grosbeak. 



The head and neck of the male and most of the upper parts are black, 

 the tail white and black combined, wings black variegated with white, and the 



487 



