APRIL BIRDS. 25 



finished. The female and the young male 

 are clad in plain brown. This finch ap- 

 pears in the spring, just when the elm- 

 trees are beginning to leaf out, and he is 

 supposed to feed on the bursting buds, to 

 the no great benefit, I fancy, of the tree. 

 I have not yet heard him about Worces- 

 ter, but, spending last Sunday in Ux- 

 bridge, where the season is much more 

 advanced than here, I was awakened early 

 in the morning by his loud, warbling song 

 proceeding from the old elm-tree in front 

 of the farm-house. 



The long, piercing note of the lark, aris- 

 ing from the meadows along the river, 

 contrasted strangely with the song of the 

 linnet, the two producing a curious and 

 rather unusual medley. 



The purple finch has a wonderfully 

 sweet and protracted warble, the notes fol- 

 lowing one another with surprising rapid- 

 ity, surpassing in this respect, Burroughs 

 says, the music of almost any other bird. 

 There is a strong resemblance to the song 

 of the warbling vireo, and it was undoubt- 



