174 SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 



The cardinal grossbeak, or Virginia red-bird, is 

 quite common in the same localities, though more in- 

 clined to seek the woods. It is much sought after 

 by bird-fanciers, and by boy gunners, and conse 

 quently is very shy. This bird suggests a British 

 red-coat ; his "heavy, pointed beak, his high cockade, 

 the black stripe" down his face, the expression of 

 weight and massiveness about his head and neck, and 

 his erect attitude, give him a decided soldierlike ap- 

 pearance ; and there is something of the tone of the 

 fife in his song or whistle, while his ordinary note, 

 when disturbed, is like the clink of a sabre. Yester- 

 day, as I sat indolently swinging in the loop of a 

 grape-vine, beneath a thick canopy of green branches, 

 in a secluded nook by a spring run, one of these birds 

 came pursuing some kind of insect, but a few feet 

 above me. He hopped about, now and then uttering 

 his sharp note, till, some moth or beetle trying to 

 escape, he broke down through the cover almost 

 where I sat. The effect was like a firebrand coming 

 down through the branches. Instantly catching sight 

 of me, he darted away much alarmed. The female is 

 tinged with brown, and shows but little red except 

 when she takes flight. 



By far the most abundant species of woodpecker 

 about Washington is the red-headed. It is more 

 common than the robin. Not in the deep woods, but 

 among the scattered dilapidated oaks and groves, on 

 the hills and in the fields, I hear, almost every day, 

 his uncanny note, ktr-rr, ktr-r-r, like that of some 



