288 A MONTH'S MUSIC. 
struck a perch thatthe broke forth again in his 
loudest and most spirited manner, and contin- 
ued without a pause for two or three times the 
length of his longest ordinary efforts. ‘“ What 
lungs he must have!” I said to myself; and at 
once fell to wondering what could have stirred 
him up to such a pitch of excitement, and 
whether the bird he had been pursuing was 
male or female. He would have said, perhaps, 
if he had said anything, that that was none of 
my business. 
What I have been remarking with regard to 
the proneness of newly discovered things to be- 
come all at once common was well illustrated 
for me about this time by these same linnets, 
or purple finches. One rainy morning, while 
making my accustomed rounds, enveloped in 
rubber, I stopped to notice a blue-headed vireo, 
who, as I soon perceived, was sitting lazily in 
the top of a locust-tree, looking rather discon- 
solate, and ejaculating with not more than half 
his customary voice and emphasis, Mary Ware ! 
— Mary Ware! His indolence struck me as 
very surprising for a vireo; still I had no ques- 
tion about his identity (he sat between me and 
the sun) till I changed my position, when be- 
hold! the vireo was a linnet. A strange per- 
formance, indeed! What could have set this 
fluent vocalist to practicing exercises of such an 
