ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 153 



he was sitting quietly on the top of a small stump. 

 He had no objection to make to me then, but 

 when Balder began stalking around among the 

 bushes he stretched up till he made himself look 

 comically like a long narrow-necked bottle, when 

 he took a survey and departed. 



XLIV. 



ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 



JUST back of the Smith College campus, on 

 the bank of Mill River, where the catbird talked 

 to himself in the sunny orchard, the handsome 

 purple finch made love to his lady bird, and the 

 cuckoo hid away among the leaves, the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak used to stop before beginning 

 housekeeping. A big maple in one corner of the 

 orchard by the river was his favorite cover, but 

 we have watched him sing quite fearlessly in a 

 small elm on the outside of the orchard, close to 

 the road. 



What a beauty he was too ! He wore a deco- 

 rous glossy black coat and white vest, but where 

 his black choker touched his shirt front was it 

 a beautiful pink rose he had fastened on to catch 

 the eye of his lady ? And as he flew past, show- 

 ing white blotches on his tail and at its base, was 

 that rose powder with which he had touched the 

 under side of his wings ? His wife was as good 



