ON BOSTON COMMON. 26 
one of the smaller species feeding over its bot- 
tom. Very picturesque they were, feeding and 
flying in close order. Besides these must be 
mentioned the yellow-throated vireo, the bay- 
winged bunting, the swamp sparrow, the field 
sparrow, the purple finch, the red-poll linnet, 
the savanna sparrow, the tree sparrow, the 
night-hawk (whose celebrated tumbling trick 
may often be witnessed by evening strollers in 
the Garden), the woodcock (I found the body 
of one which had evidently met its death against 
the electric wire), and among the best of all, 
the chickadees, who sometimes make the whole 
autumn cheerful with their presence, but about 
whom I say nothing here because I have said so 
much elsewhere. 
Of fugitive cage-birds, I recall only five — all 
in the Garden. One of these, feeding tamely 
in the path, I suspected for an English robin ; 
-but he was not in full plumage, and my conjec- 
ture may have been incorrect. Another was a 
diminutive finch, dressed in a suit of red, blue, 
and green. He sat in a bush, saying Vo, no! 
to a feline admirer who was making love to him 
earnestly. The others were a mocking-bird, a 
cardinal grosbeak, and a paroquet. ‘The mock- 
ing-bird and the grosbeak might possibly have 
been wild, had the question been one of lati- 
tude simply, but their demeanor satisfied me to 
