WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 225 



not yet seen in Florida. I quickened my 

 steps, and to my delight the singer proved 

 to be a blue grosbeak. I had caught a 

 glimpse of one two days before, as I have 

 described in another chapter, but with no 

 opportunity for a final identification. Here, 

 as it soon turned out, there were at least 

 four birds, all males, and all singing ; chas- 

 ing each other about after the most per- 

 sistent fashion, in a piece of close shrub- 

 bery with tall trees interspersed, and act- 

 ing the four of them just as two birds 

 are often seen to do when contending for 

 the possession of a building site. At a first 

 hearing the song seems not so long sustained 

 as the purple finch's commonly is, but ex- 

 ceedingly like it in voice and manner, though 

 not equal to it, I should be inclined to say, 

 in either respect. The birds made fre- 

 quent use of a monosyllabic call, correspond- 

 ing to the calls of the purple finch and the 

 rose-breasted grosbeak, but readily distin- 

 guishable from both. I was greatly pleased 

 to see them, and thought them extremely 

 handsome, with their dark blue plumage set 

 off by wing patches of rich chestnut. 



A little farther, and I was saluted by the 



