346 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



some, vigorous songs of the robins, and the sweet, home- 

 like strains of the song-sparrows are the first to be regu- 

 larly heard in the grounds, and they lead the chorus. 

 The catbirds chime in later; they are queer, familiar, 

 strongly individual birds, and are really good singers; 

 but they persist in interrupting their songs with cat- 

 like squalling. Two or three pairs of flickers nest 

 with us, as well as the red-headed woodpeckers above 

 mentioned; and a pair of furtive cuckoos. A pair of 

 orchard orioles nested with us one spring, but not 

 again; the redstarts, warbling vireos, and summer war- 

 blers have been more faithful. Baltimore orioles fre- 

 quently visit us, as do the scarlet tanagers and tufted 

 titmice, but for some reason they have not nested here. 

 This spring a cardinal bird took up his abode in the 

 neighborhood of the White House, and now and then 

 waked us in the morning by his vigorous whistling in 

 a magnolia tree just outside our windows. A Carolina 

 wren also spent the winter with us, and sang freely. 

 In both spring and fall the white-throated sparrows 

 sing while stopping over in the course of their migra- 

 tions. Their delicate, plaintive, musical notes are among 

 the most attractive of bird sounds. In the early spring 

 we sometimes hear the fox-sparrows and tree-sparrows, 

 and of course the twittering snow-birds. Later war- 

 blers of many kinds throng the trees around the house. 

 Rabbits breed in the grounds, and every now and then 

 possums wander into them. Gray squirrels are numer- 

 ous, and some of them so tame that they will eat out of 

 our hands. In spring they cut the flowers from the stately 



