MINOR SONGSTERS. 173 
with a truly tropical splendor, the like of which 
no other of our birds can furnish. Let us hold 
him in hearty esteem, and pray that he may 
never be exterminated ; no, not even to beau- 
tify the head-gear of our ladies, who, if they 
only knew it, are already sufficiently bewitch- 
ing. 
What shall we say now about the lesser 
lights of that most musical family, the finches? 
Of course the cardinal and rose-breasted gros- 
beaks are not to be included in any such cate- 
gory. Nor will J put there the goldfinch, the 
linnet, the fox-colored sparrow, and the song 
sparrow. These, if no more, shall stand among 
the immortals ; so far, at any rate, as my suf- 
frage counts. But who ever dreamed of calling 
the chipping sparrow a fine singer? And yet, 
who that knows it does not love his earnest, 
long-drawn trill, dry and tuneless as it. is? I 
can speak for one, at all events; and he always 
has an ear open for it by the middle of April. 
It is the voice of a friend,—a friend so true 
and gentle and confiding that we do not care to 
ask whether his voice be smooth and his speech 
eloquent. 
The chipper’s congener, the field sparrow, 
is less neighborly than he, but a much better 
musician. His song is simplicity. itself; yet, 
even at its lowest estate, it never fails of being 
