Red-breasted Grosbeak 131 



above he appears to be almost a black bird, 

 for his upper parts, throat and breast are very 

 dark where his mate is brownish; but under- 

 neath both are grayish white with patches of 

 rusty red on their sides, the colour resembling 

 a robin's breast when its red has somewhat 

 faded toward the ^nd of summer. The white 

 feathers on the towhee's short, rounded wings 

 and on the sides of his tail are conspicuous 

 signals, as he flies jerkily to the nearest cover. 

 You could not expect a bird with such small 

 wings to be a graceful flyer. 



Rarely does he leave the ground except to 

 sing his love-song. Then, mounting no higher 

 than a bush or low branch, he entrances his 

 sweetheart, if not the human critic, with a song 

 to which Ernest Thompson Seton supplies the 

 well-fitted words: Chuck-burr ^ pill-a will-a- 

 will-a. 



RED-BREASTED GROSBEAK 



Among birds, as among humans, it is the 

 father who lends his name to the family, how- 

 ever difficult it may be to know the mother and 

 children by it. Who that had not studied the 

 books would recognise Mrs. Scarlet Tanager by 

 her name? or Mrs. Purple Finch? or Mrs. 

 Indigo Bunting? or Mrs. Rose-breasted Gros- 



