SMALL COUNTRY NEIGHBORS 411 



study at close quarters with the glasses ; as I had no gun 

 I could not be positive about their identification, though 

 I was inclined to believe that they were Henslow's spar- 

 rows. Of birds of brilliant color there are six species 

 the cardinal, the summer redbird and the scarlet tanager, 

 in red, and the bluebird, indigo bunting, and blue gross- 

 beak, in blue. I saw but one pair of blue grossbeaks; 

 but the little indigo buntings abound, and bluebirds are 

 exceedingly common, breeding in numbers. It has al- 

 ways been a puzzle to me why they do not breed around 

 us at Sagamore Hill, where I only see them during the 

 migrations. Neither the rosy summer redbirds nor the 

 cardinals are quite as brilliant as the scarlet tanagers, 

 which fairly burn like live flames; but the tanager is 

 much less common than either of the others in Albemarle 

 County, and it is much less common than it is at Saga- 

 more Hill. Among the singers the wood thrush is not 

 common, but the meadow lark abounds. The yellow- 

 breasted chat is everywhere and in the spring its cluck- 

 ing, whistling and calling seem never to stop for a minute. 

 The white-eyed vireo is found in the same thick under- 

 growth as the chat and among the smaller birds it is one 

 of those most in evidence to the ear. In one or two places 

 I came across parties of the long-tailed Bewick's wren, 

 as familiar as the house wren but with a very different 

 song. There are gentle mourning doves ; and black-billed 

 cuckoos seem more common than the yellow-bills. The 

 mocking-birds are, as always, most interesting. I was 

 much amused to see one of them following two crows; 

 when they lit in a plowed field the mocking-bird paraded 



