ROSt-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



about the music of the Rose-breasted (rrosbeak, and I 

 am inclined to think this is wholly due to its sentimental 

 character. E. A. Samuels writes, " The song is difficult 

 of description; it is a sweet warble," (in this regard my 

 opinion differs from his, for I do not consider the bird 

 warbles at all!) "with various emphatic passages, and 

 sometimes a plaintive strain, exceedingly tender and 

 affecting." H. D. Minot also falls into the error of the 

 " warble "; he writes, " he pours out an extremely mel- 

 low warble, like that of the Robin, but very much finer. 

 Sometimes he sings in ihe night, and with an ardor 

 which adds to the beauty of his song." Nuttall, too, is 

 not behind Minot in the matter of the " warble," for he 

 writes that the bird " is a most melodious and inde- 

 fatigable warbler, frequently in fine weather, as in its 

 state of freedom, passing a great part of the night in 

 singing, with all the varied and touching tones of the 

 Nightingale. . . . The notes are wholly warbled, 

 now loud, clear, and vaulting with a querulous air, then 

 perhaps sprightly, and finally lower, tender, and pa- 

 thetic." John Burroughs writes in Wake Robin that 

 "he has fine talents, but not genius." Mr. Cheney 

 writes, "his loud, ringing song surely arrests the ear. 

 He sings rapidly and energetically, as if in a hurry to be 

 through and off. No bird sings with more ardor. While 

 on paper his song resembles the Robin's, . . . the voice 

 and delivery are very unlike the Robin's." But Mr. 

 Chapman's admiration of the bird's voice is evidently 

 unlimited ; for he says, " There is an exquisite purity in 

 the joyous carol of the Grosbeak; his song tells of all 

 the gladness of a May morning; I have heard few hap- 

 pier strains of bird music. With those who are deaf to 

 its message of good cheer I can only sympathize, pitying 

 the man whose heart does not leap with enthusiasm at 

 the sight of rival males dashing through the woods like 

 winged meteors, leaving in their wake a train of spark- 

 ling notes." 



The call-note of this Grosbeak is a ridiculously high 

 piping pip, or a metallic pink with a shade of anxiety to 

 the tone, which seems quite unrelated to so large a bird. 

 But the song is truly an inspired bit of bird-carolling, to 



