86 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



my grandfather would remark, " The red-bird says 

 ' wet,' so it's going to rain." Of course it did not 

 rain that day ; it never does when the May day is as 

 bright as those that made the world beautiful when 

 I was a boy. Then the orchard in full bloom and 

 every blossom blushing as a rose! Have the flowers 

 faded within forty years ? Why have the new orchards 

 such a pallid face? The world is forever moving 

 forward ; we are now in the electric age and steam is 

 slow. A vast improvement, it is said, but I would 

 that our young orchards were old and every tree had 

 its red-bird. 



I did not and do not purpose speaking slightingly 

 of scarlet tanagers, but it must be confessed that if 

 you took away a few red feathers there would be 

 absolutely nothing left. As a song-bird you cannot 

 name a more melancholy failure ; and as they do not 

 show themselves more than is necessary, and are 

 sluggish creatures at best, why not set up bits of red 

 flannel in the trees and call them red-birds ? 



As an insect-hunter the scarlet tanager is a grand 

 success, and for this alone he merits endless praise. 

 Here are three lines from a recent newspaper which 

 mean a vast deal : 



" In Burlington grub- worms and mice did some harm, more so 

 than during the past twenty-five years." 



Not long ago I passed, early in May, a ploughed 

 field and noticed on the brown earth here and there 

 a bright-red dot. Stopping by a little cedar that 

 concealed me from their view, I saw at second glance 

 that the red dots were tanagers, and with my field- 



