256 SOME COMMON LAND-BIRDS. 



teacher!! TEACHER ! ! ! " calls the oven-bird to Mr. Burroughs, 

 and it is clear how he got it ; he must have been thinking of 

 the school days of his youth, when the boy who knew the ques- 

 tion, but wasn't asked, took advantage of the mortified silence 

 of the boy who had been asked, but didn't know, to call atten- 

 tion to himself by sliding far forward on the seat, snapping 

 the fingers of his uplifted hand, and calling, " Teacher ! 

 teacher ! ! TEACHER ! ! ! " When you hear the oven-bird high in 

 a tree-top calling that sharp crescendo, you will think of the 

 boy in the old-time country school and wonder how any one 

 could have been so unobservant as to tell of his we-cher or 

 beecher notes. 



I find in my notebooks a rendering of the goldfinch's spring 

 song, which I am very sure must have come from Mr. Burroughs. 

 The goldfinch, our little " yellow bird," with the black cap 

 and the black wings and tail, called by the scientists 

 " tristiSj the sad one," hits the heart of melancholy with his 

 plaintive late summer and fall song. But in the springtime 

 he is a joyous lover, and his mating song is a pretty compli- 

 ment to his beloved : " Sweet, sweet, sweet, Marjori'e, Marjon'e." 



To me the yellow-throated vireo seems to say, " Here I am ! 

 Mary ! Mary ! Here I am ! " No doubt Mary is very fond of 

 him; they always seem entirely devoted to each other, and 

 they build one of the prettiest nests a proud mother ever 

 introduced us to, trusting us to admire and not to injure it. 



The scarlet tanager is generally set down as saying chip-churr, 

 a remark equally without originality and meaning, but to me 

 he always seems convulsed with laughter at his little green 

 wife's doings, and like to burst his waistcoat buttons as he 

 chuckles, " Oh, dear, kick her ! kick her ! " 



" Who, who, who are you ? " Thoreau says is the question 

 of the great horned owl. Those big eyes and tall ears cer- 



