ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 
about the music of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and { 
am inclined to think this is wholly due to its sentimental 
character. E. A. Samuels writes, ‘‘ The song is difficult 
of description; it is a sweet warble,” (in this regard my 
opinion differs from his, for I do not consider the bird 
warbles at all!) ‘‘ with various emphatic passages, and 
sometimes a plaintive strain, exceedingly tender and 
affecting.”” H.D. Minot also falls into the error of the 
“warble”; he writes, ‘‘ he pours out an extremely mel- 
low warble, like that of the Robin, but very much finer. 
Sometimes he sings in ¢he night, and with an ardor 
which adds to the beauty of his song.” Nuttall, too, is 
not behind Minot in the matter of the ‘‘ warble,” for he 
writes that the bird ‘‘is a most melodious and inde- 
fatigable warbler, frequently in fine weather, as in its 
state of freedom, passing a great part of the night in 
singing, with all the varied and touching tones of the 
Nightingale. . . . The notes are wholly warbled, 
now loud, clear, and vaulting with a querulous air, then 
perhaps sprightly, and finally lower, tender, and pa- 
thetic.” John Burroughs writes in Wake Robin that 
‘“‘he has fine talents, but not genius.” Mr. Cheney 
writes, ‘‘his loud, ringing song surely arrests the ear. 
He sings rapidly and energetically, as if in a hurry to be 
through and off. No bird sings with more ardor. While 
on paper his song resembles the Robin’s, . . . the voice 
and delivery are very unlike the Robin’s.” But Mr. 
Chapman’s admiration of the bird’s voice is evidently 
unlimited ; for he says, ‘‘ There is an exquisite purity in 
the joyous carol of the Grosbeak; his song tells of all 
the gladness of a May morning; I have heard few hap- 
pier strains of bird music. With those who are deaf to 
its message of good cheer I can only sympathize, pitying 
the man whose heart does not leap with enthusiasm at 
the sight of rival males dashing through the woods like 
winged meteors, leaving in their wake a train of spark- 
ling notes.” 
The call-note of this Grosbeak is a ridiculously high 
piping pip, or a metallic pink with a shade of anxiety to 
the tone, which seems quite unrelated to so large a bird. 
But the song is truly an inspired bit of bird-carolling, to 
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