X 
THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 
THERE is never a May passes, of recent years, 
but some one comes to me, or writes to me, to 
inquire about a wonderfully beautiful bird that 
he has just seen for the first time. He does 
hope I can tell him what it is. It is a pretty 
large bird, he goes on to say, — but not so long 
as a robin, he thinks, if I question him, — mostly 
black and white, but with such a splendid rosy 
patch on his breast or throat! What can it be? 
He had no idea that anything so handsome was 
ever to be seen in these parts. 
If all the questions that people ask about 
birds were as easily answered as this one, I should 
be thankful. It is a rose-breasted grosbeak, I 
tell the inquirer. Perhaps he noticed that its bill 
was uncommonly stout. If he did, the fact is 
exceptional, for somehow the shape of the bill is 
a point which the average person seems very sel- 
dom to notice, although it is highly important. 
Anyhow, the rosebreast’s beak is most decidedly 
“gross.” And he is every whit as beautiful as 

