ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 158 
he was sitting quietly on the top of a small stump. 
He had no objection to make to me then, but 
when Balder began stalking around among the 
bushes he stretched up till he made himself look 
comically like a long narrow-necked bottle, when 
he took a survey and departed. 
XLIV. 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 
Just back of the Smith College campus, on 
the bank of Mill River, where the catbird talked 
to himself in the sunny orchard, the handsome 
purple finch made love to his lady bird, and the 
cuckoo hid away among the leaves, the rose- 
breasted grosbeak used to stop before beginning 
housekeeping. A big maple in one corner of the 
orchard by the river was his favorite cover, but 
we have watched him sing quite fearlessly in a 
small elm on the outside of the orchard, close to 
the road. 
What a beauty he was too! He wore a deco- 
rous glossy black coat and white vest, but where 
his black choker touched his shirt front — was it 
a beautiful pink rose he had fastened on to catch 
the eye of his lady? And as he flew past, show- 
ing white blotches on his tail and at its base, was 
that rose powder with which he had touched the 
under side of his wings? His wife was as good 
