THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 



THERE is never a May passes, of recent years, 

 but some one comes to me, or writes to me, to 

 inquire about a wonderfully beautiful bird that 

 he has just seen for the first time. He does 

 hope I can tell him what it is. It is a pretty 

 large bird, he goes on to say, but not so long 

 as a robin, he thinks, if I question him, mostly 

 black and white, but with such a splendid rosy 

 patch on his breast or throat ! What can it be ? 

 He had no idea that anything so handsome was 

 ever to be seen in these parts. 



If all the questions that people ask about 

 birds were as easily answered as this one, I should 

 be thankful. It is a rose-breasted grosbeak, I 

 tell the inquirer. Perhaps he noticed that its bill 

 was uncommonly stout. If he did, the fact is 

 exceptional, for somehow the shape of the bill is 

 a point which the average person seems very sel- 

 dom to notice, although it is highly important. 

 Anyhow, the rosebreast's beak is most decidedly 

 " gross." And he is every whit as beautiful as 



