288 A MONTH'S MUSIC. 



struck a perch than he broke forth again in his 

 loudest and most spirited manner, and contin- 

 ued without a pause for two or three times the 

 length of his longest ordinary efforts. " What 

 lungs he must have ! " I said to myself ; and at 

 once fell to wondering what could have stirred 

 him up to such a pitch of excitement, and 

 whether the bird he had been pursuing was 

 male or female. He would have said, perhaps, 

 if he had said anything, that that was none of 

 my business. 



What I have been remarking with regard to 

 the proneness of newly discovered things to be- 

 come all at once common was well illustrated 

 for me about this time by these same linnets, 

 or purple finches. One rainy morning, while 

 making my accustomed rounds, enveloped in 

 rubber, I stopped to notice a blue-headed vireo, 

 who, as I soon perceived, was sitting lazily in 

 the top of a locust-tree, looking rather discon- 

 solate, and ejaculating with not more than half 

 his customary voice and emphasis, Mary Ware ! 

 Mary Ware ! His indolence struck me as 

 very surprising for a vireo ; still I had no ques- 

 tion about his identity (he sat between me and 

 the sun) till I changed my position, when be- 

 hold ! the vireo was a linnet. A strange per- 

 formance, indeed ! What could have set this 

 fluent vocalist to practicing exercises of such an 



