56 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



rose-breasted grosbeak is not likely soon 

 to forget him. He is about the size of the 

 robin, black above and light beneath, with 

 a heavy, rather homely beak, whence his 

 name. But this rather unattractive feature 

 is amply counterbalanced by a beautiful 

 rose-blush circular spot in the very centre 

 of his breast, which is very conspicuous 

 and unmistakable against the white. 



A friend of mine, I remember, once came 

 across one of these handsome birds, which 

 he had never seen before, in the back- 

 woods of Maine, and using this beautiful 

 mark as a target, sent a rifle-bullet through 

 its heart. The bird's chief ornament w^as 

 thus the occasion of its death. The female 

 wants the rose-blush mark on the breast, 

 and is altogether a plain, inconspicuous 

 bird, with a brown back and light breast. 

 Some ornithologists profess to see in the 

 subdued tints of the females of nearly all 

 our birds a wise provision of nature, which 

 has clad in plainer and less noticeable at- 

 tire the sex which is most concerned in the 

 propagation of its kind. They find a sim- 



