Grosbeak SONG-BIRDS. 



September, and that in January and February this bird's 

 clear notes are the only music. In Europe, where they are 

 highly prized as cage birds, the name of Virginia Nightin- 

 gale is given them. 



The most delicate and pathetic description of this bird, 

 whose beauty is his knell, is to be found in J. L. Allen's 

 " Kentucky Cardinal," that story in which a knowledge 

 of wild Nature and of the human heart are so perfectly 

 blended : " Lo ! some morning the leaves are on the ground, 

 and the birds have vanished. The species that remain, or 

 that come to us then, wear the hues of the season and melt 

 into the tone of Nature's background, blues, grays, 

 browns, with touches of white on tail and breast and wing 

 for coming flecks of snow. 



" Save only him, proud, solitary stranger to our un- 

 friendly land, the fiery Grosbeak. Nature in Kentucky 

 has no wintry harmonies for him. He could find these 

 only among the tufts of the October sumach, or in the gum- 

 tree when it stands a pillar of red twilight fire in the dark 

 November woods, or in the far depths of the crimson sun- 

 set skies, where, indeed, he seems to have been nested, and 

 whence to have come as a messenger of beauty, bearing on 

 his wings the light of his diviner home. . . . What won- 

 der if he is so shy, so rare, so secluded, this flame-coloured 

 prisoner in dark green chambers, who has only to be seen 

 or heard and Death adjusts an arrow ! . . . He will sit for 

 a long time in the heart of a cedar, as if absorbed in the 

 tragic memories of his race. Then, softly, wearily, he will 

 call out to you and to the whole world : Peace . . . Peace 

 . . . Peace . . . Peace . . . Peace . . . ! the most melo- 

 dious sigh that ever issued from the clefts of a dungeon." 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak: Hdbia ludoviciana. 



PLATE 33. 



Length: 7.75-8.60 inches. 



Male: Breast rose-carmine, which colour extends under the wings. 



Above black ; belly, rump, three outer tail quills and two spots 



on wings white ; white bill. 



162 



