CHAPTER VI. 

 FOUR RED BIRDS. 



Red, of any shade, is not a common color among our 

 birds. Some, like the woodpeckers, have a little patch 

 on the back of their head, the kingbird a little at the 

 base of his crest, and the smaller blackbird red-and-gold 

 shoulders ; bnt, as we walk through the woods, over the 

 fields, or about the meadows, we certainly see very little 

 red plumage on any of the many birds hovering about 

 VLB ; and yet, the year through, we are never without a 

 wholly red bird, or one with that color greatly predom- 

 inating. While purposing to speak particularly of but 

 four, there are really seven such birds, if we include the 

 two crossbills and the purple finch. 



In summer the red-bird, par excellence, is now rare, 

 but the scarlet tanager is abundant ; in winter we have 

 the crested cardinal and the pine grosbeak. The former 

 is quite common all winter long, whether the season is 

 mild or severe ; and, I believe, only when we have an 

 arctic winter can we confidently expect the pine gros- 

 beaks to haunt our cedars. Let us consider these four 

 birds, as they appear in the same locality — two as sum- 

 mer visitants, one as resident, and the fourth as a stray 

 comer, when the thermometer ranges low. 



So recently as thirty years ago the summer red-bird 

 was as regular and almost as abundant as any of our 



