notes, which both in a wild and domestic state, are very various and 

 musical ; many of them resemble the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as 

 loud. They are in song from March to September, beginning at the first 

 appearance of dawn, and repeating a favourite stanza, or passage, twenty 

 or thirty times successively ; sometimes, with little intermission for a 

 whole morning together, which, like a good story too often repeated, 

 becomes at length tiresome and insipid. But the sprightly figure, and 

 gaudy plumage, of the Red-bird, his vivacity, strength of voice, and actual 

 variety of note, and the little expense with which he is kept, will always 

 make him a favourite. In Pennsylvania and the Northern States it is 

 rather a scarce species ; but through the whole lower parts of the 

 Southern States, in the neighbourhood of settlements, I found them 

 much more numerous ; their clear and lively notes, in the months 

 of January and February, being, at that time, almost the only music 

 of the season. Along the roadsides and fences I found them hovering 

 in half dozens together, associated with snow birds, and various kinds of 

 sparrows. 



" In the Northern States, they are migratory ; but in the lower parts 

 of Pennsylvania, they reside during the whole year, frequenting the 

 borders of creeks and rivulets, in sheltered hollows covered with holly, 

 laurel, and other evergreens. They love also to reside in the 

 vicinity of fields of Indian corn, a grain that constitutes their chief 

 and favourite food. The seeds of apples, cherries, and many other 

 sorts of fruit, are also eaten by them ; and they are accused of destroying 

 bees. 



" In the months of March and April, the males have many violent 

 engagements for their favourite females. Early in May, in Pennsylvania, 

 they begin to prepare their nest, which is very often fixed in a holly, cedar, 

 or laurel bush. 



" The few of our song birds that have visited Europe extort admiration 

 from the best judges. " The notes of the cardinal grosbeak," says 

 Latham, "are almost equal to those of the nightingale," yet these 

 notes, clear and excellent as they are, are far inferior to those of the wood 

 thrush ; and even to those of the brown thrush or thrasher." 



