THE INVITATION 213 



The social sparrow, alias "hairbird," alias "red- 

 headed chipping- bird, " is the smallest of the spar- 

 rows, and, I believe, the only one that builds in 

 trees. 



The finches, as a class, all have short conical 

 bills, with tails more or less forked. The purple 

 finch heads the list in varied musical ability. 



Beside the groups of our more familiar birds 

 which I have thus hastily outlined, there are numer- 

 ous other groups, more limited in specimens but 

 comprising some of our best known songsters. The 

 bobolink, for instance, has properly no congener. 

 The famous mockingbird of the Southern States 

 belongs to a genus which has but two other repre- 

 sentatives in the Atlantic States, namely, the cat- 

 bird and the long-tailed or ferruginous thrush. 



The wrens are a large and interesting family, and 

 as songsters are noted for vivacity and volubility. 

 The more common species are the house wren, the 

 marsh wren, the great Carolina wren, and the winter 

 wren, the latter perhaps deriving its name from the 

 fact that it breeds in the North. It is an exquisite 

 songster, and pours forth its notes so rapidly, and 

 with such sylvan sweetness and cadence, that it 

 seems to go off like a musical alarm. 



Wilson called the kinglets wrens, but they have 

 little to justify the name, except that the ruby- 

 crown's song is of the same gushing, lyrical charac- 

 ter as that referred to above. Dr. Brewer was en- 

 tranced with the song of one of these tiny minstrels 

 in the woods of New Brunswick, and thought he 



