330 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIEDS. 



you in its " singing robes," with wings outspread as in the 

 fluttered ecstasy of song is quite rare and difficult to ob- 

 tain, from the peculiarly inaccessible character of its resorts. 

 I recollect well the first specimen I ever saw I came upon it 

 suddenly amidst the sultry stillness of a dark, deep wood. I 

 was quite a boy, and when I caught sight of its dotted wings 

 and the strange, delicate pink underneath its wings and 

 breast, my heart leaped with a wondering thrill, and the 

 same exquisite sense of strangeness came over me as that 

 which fills our childhood at hearing some wondrous fairy 

 tale. I believe I should almost have died of vexation had 

 I not finally succeeded in shooting the beautiful stranger to 

 obtain a closer look at it. Ah, how I gazed and wondered 

 and wept as I saw it close its dark lustrous eyes, and die in 

 my hand. It was long before I learned to place it. But in 

 the case of so rare a bird, I shall be excused in quoting still 

 further from Mr. Audubon. He says : 



" I am indebted to my friend, John Bachman, for the fol- 

 lowing information respecting this interesting Grosbeak: 

 1 One spring I shot at a beautiful male bird of this species, in 

 the State of New York. It was wounded in one foot only. 

 and although I could not perceive any other injury after 

 wards, it fell from the tree to the ground, and before it re- 

 covered itself I secured it. Not having a cage at hand, I let 

 it fly in the room which I had made my study. Before an 

 hour had elapsed it appeared as if disposed to eat ; it refused 

 corn and wheat, but fed heartily on bread dipped in milk. 

 The next day it was nearly quite gentle, and began to ex- 

 amine the foot injured by the shot, which was much swollen 

 and quite black. It began to bite off its foot at the wounded 

 part, and soon succeeded in cutting it quite across. It 

 healed in a few days, and the bird used the mutilated leg al- 

 most as well as the other, perching and resting upon it. It 

 required indeed some care to observe that the patient had 

 been injured. I procured a cage for it, to which it imme- 

 diately became reconciled. It ate all kinds of food, but pre- 



