12 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



shone from our window across the vine where he slept, at ten 

 or eleven o'clock at night, he suddenly awakened and began 

 to sing. Out into the stillness of the night he flung the exquis- 

 ite sweetness of his song. Then came the trilling, perfect bub- 

 bles of music and a run from low C up to B flat C, in endless 

 repetition, until, breathless and sleepy, he must perforce give 

 over the concert until dawn. But repeatedly subdued half- 

 tones came out from among the leaves, as if he were hardly 

 yet persuaded that the lamplight was not some new kind of 

 sunrising." In speaking of the ways of the female she says, 

 "She sometimes added to the charm of her flight by sitting on 

 the twig for two or three minutes, before stepping into the 

 nest, and pouring forth notes of bewildering sweetness. This 

 was her especial accomplishment to fly home and, before set- 

 tling down to the monotony of brooding, whistle ecstatically. 

 Many times in the day did she repeat this. Occasionally on the 

 nest she would whistle and call in such low, clear tones, rais- 

 ing her head to listen for my answer or for her mate's, if he 

 were in the vicinity, that I felt she had, in the joy of maternity, 

 forgotten all its pain." At Buzzard's Roost I have enjoyed these 

 responsive songs, the male singing from the tulip tree near 

 the cottage and the female from the timber near the bank of 

 Fall Creek. 



The bill of a bird is its most important organ. By its 

 shape an ornithologist can tell to what family the bird be- 

 longs and upon what the bird feeds. Mr. Frank M. Chapman 

 in his Bird Life has well said, "The variety of offices performed 

 by the bill, and the corresponding numerous forms it assumes 

 are, doubtless, without parallel in the animal world ; and won- 

 derful indeed are the forms it assumes to supply the appetites 

 of birds who may require a drop of nectar or a tiny insect from 

 the heart of a flower, a snake from the marshes, a clam or a 

 mussel from the ocean's beach, or a fish from the waters. The 

 bills, therefore, become a forceps, lever, chisel, hook, hammer, 

 awl, probe, spoon, spear, sieve, net and knife in short, there 

 is almost no limit to its shape and uses." The cardinal, as we 

 have seen, has a grosbeak and this well serves it in cracking 

 and crushing its food, which consists of the larger seeds, small- 

 er nuts and wild fruits. The large cavity in its bill, no doubt, 



