MAY BIRDS. 57 



ilarly wise provision in the law of nature 

 which has conferred such rich musical gifts 

 on the male birds, which are almost entirely 

 denied to the females. The rose-breasted 

 grosbeak is closely allied to the beautiful 

 cardinal grosbeak, — a more southern spe- 

 cies, with which most of my readers are 

 probably familiar as a cage-bird, — as well 

 as to the blue-grosbeak of Louisiana. The 

 musical attainments of this bird, as of the 

 cardinal grosbeak, are of a very high or- 

 der, but his comparative rarity prevents 

 his song being familiar to most of us. I 

 saw only three or four of these birds dur- 

 ing the whole of last season, but one indi- 

 vidual last June flew into a tree in Elm 

 Park, directly over my head, thus giving 

 me an admirable opportunity to study his 

 song. It reminds one both of the song of 

 the robin and of the rich warble of the 

 oriole, but to my mind is much superior 

 to either. 



Another bird, no less striking in appear- 

 ance than the grosbeak, and much com- 

 moner, being in fact rather abundant in all 



