IParaMse Circle 



coming quite scarce. A few years ago 

 they were plentiful in many places. I 

 have seen them migrating southward in 

 scattering flocks during the last days of 

 August and the first week of September. 

 The present year I saw none. This gros- 

 beak is but a cousin of the cardinal's ; and 

 the same may be said of the beautiful blue 

 grosbeak, now so seldom seen. But, get- 

 ting back to our resident redcoat, the 

 cardinal itself is rapidly disappearing from 

 the middle Western States. A few years 

 more will, it is to be feared, confine its 

 habitat to the wilder regions of the South. 



The grosbeak blazing so conspicuously 

 in the hedge of Paradise Circle was the 

 first that I had ever seen there. If he 

 had a mate she kept out of my sight. 

 Probably he was in search of her, for he 

 mounted to the topmost spray of a fringe- 

 bush and called loudly in a clear, ringing 

 voice supremely cheerful and insistent. 

 But no answer came ; a foraging hawk may 

 have had a good meal picking the bones 

 of Madam Grosbeak. 



Speaking of hawks, they play a leading 

 57 



