SLANDERED CEDAR-BIRD 201 



act has no moral significance whatever, while 

 that epithet, constantly applied, creates a 

 prejudice against a most useful bird. 



It has been proved many times over that 

 the cedar-bird prefers to fruit canker-worms 

 and other insects, of which he eats enormous 

 numbers, and even of fruit he chooses the 

 wild instead of the cultivated, when both are 

 at hand. I have seen them, when low-bush 

 blueberries were ripe, bring their young 

 family and spend nearly all day " blueber'n," 

 as the natives say. 



In the fateful summer of which I write, 

 I saw what I had never seen before a 

 flock of purple finches. There were fifteen 

 or twenty of them, and the singing was sim- 

 ply ecstatic. One purple finch song is a 

 delight, but when it is reinforced by eight or 

 ten other voices as bewitching as itself, the 

 effect is bewildering. This little flock were 

 in the wildest spirits. They sang, and sang, 

 and sang, as if they were drunk with music, 

 or had fairly gone mad. Even some of the 

 demure sparrow-garbed females (as I sup- 

 pose) sang. Now and then I heard one alone 

 on a tree apparently singing to herself. It 



