ing that afternoon the female took up the strain and sang alone for fully five 

 minutes. Then she joined the male and together they flew beyond the cemetery 

 walls where I was afraid their beauty of plumage and voice would invite de- 

 struction. I heard from a friend, however, that the cardinals were again in 

 Graceland a few days later. 



In late April. 1900, the evening grosbeaks put in an appearance in Graceland 

 cemetery. They were found by two members of the Audubon Society, who 

 were out on a search for spring birds. The evening grosbeak is in its coloring 

 one of Nature's handsome children. The body of the male is brilliant yellow, 

 while the tail is jet black. The wings are sharply contrasted black and white. 

 It is not at all a graceful bird. Its body is chunky and its movements are awk- 

 ward, the legs and feet seemingly being unequal to the task of supporting the 

 bulk of body and feathers. The discoverers of the grosbeaks were kind enough 

 to tell me of the birds' presence in Graceland, and I went with them the next 

 day and found the creatures in the place they had first been seen. There is 

 something very childlike perhaps in the joy one feels in making a new bird 

 acquaintance. I never before had seen a living evening grosbeak. There are 

 men who have made ornithology a vocation rather than an avocation, and yet 

 never have met this bird. The Graceland grosbeaks spent about half the time 

 in a clump of evergreens, flying from there to some box-elders, where they 

 would feast for a while on the buds. There were between twenty and thirty 

 individuals in the flock. Within a stone's throw of the birds' feeding-place 

 workmen were hammering spikes on an elevated railroad then under con- 

 struction. The din was nearly deafening Added to this, a locomotive with a 

 tool train was pufiing backward and forward on the surface road beneath tha 

 elevated structure. The grosbeaks paid no attention to the racket. They also 

 appeared absolutely fearless of the three human beings who stood just beneath 

 them almost within arm's reach and ogled them through opera-glasses. Although 

 the grosbeaks were strangers in tliis part of the country, they seemed to know 

 the Illinois bluejay well enough and to share with other birds the antipathy felt 

 for this feathered thief. One of the male grosbeaks attacked a jay that had 

 approached the feeding-place, and the two fought in mid-air. I have told else- 

 where of a fight between a bluejay and a scarlet tanager and of the bewildering 

 confusion of color beauty that the combat presented. In the grosbeak-blue jay 

 fight there was a change of color scheme, but the confusion and the beauty were 

 there not a bit abated. The grosbeak thrashed the jay, whereat three human 

 spectators rejoiced in concert with a dozen ruby-crowned kinglets who had 

 watched the row from a thicket. The grosbeaks disappeared from Graceland 

 on the afternoon of Friday, April 20th, thereby disappointing some bird-lovers 

 who made belated attempts to see them. 



I have just called the jay a thief. I have called him so a number of times, 

 and I will call him so again when opportunity ofifers. He is a thief, but he is 

 an interesting thief, and I don't know that we could do without him. What 



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