172 MINOR SONGSTERS. 



laboring under an attack of hoarseness ; but I 

 have discovered that he himself regards his chip- 

 cherr as of equal value. At least, I have found 

 him perched at the tip of a tall pine, and re- 

 peating this inconsiderable and not very melo- 

 dious trochee with all earnestness and persever- 

 ance. Sometimes he rehearses it thus at night- 

 fall ; but even so I cannot call it highly artistic. 

 I am glad to believe, however, that he does not 

 care in the least for my opinion. Why should 

 he ? He is too true a gallant to mind what 

 anybody else thinks, so long as one is pleased ; 

 and she, no doubt, tells him every day that he 

 is the best singer in the grove. Beside his di- 

 vine chip-cherr the rhapsody of the wood thrush 

 is a mere nothing, if she is to be the judge. 

 Strange, indeed, that so shabbily dressed a 

 creature as this thrush should have the pre- 

 sumption to attempt to sing at all ! " But 

 then," she charitably adds, " perhaps he is not 

 to blame ; such things come by nature ; and 

 there are some birds, you know, who cannot tell 

 the difference between noise and music." 



We trust that the tanager will improve as 

 time goes on ; but in any case we are largely in 

 his debt. How we should miss him if he were 

 gone, or even were become as rare as the sum- 

 mer red-bird and the cardinal are in our lati- 

 tude ! As it is, he lights up our Northern woods 



