A LITTLE-KNOWN SINGER 



Among the many birds that act as ad- member seeing a single person, not an 



vance guard for the returning sun there ornithologist, who confessed that he had 



are few common species less widely ever noticed the song of this bird until 



known than the two kinglets, the golden his attention was called to it and the 



and the ruby-crowned. This general ig- singer pointed out to him. While I am 



norance does not spring from any diffi- on the subject of confessions I might as 



culty in finding the birds, for during the well make my own ; I consider myself a 



spring migration these two are widely good observer, but I never heard the 



and plentifully distributed throughout song in question till four or five years 



the Mississippi Valley from the Appa- ago. One fine March morning I went 



lachians to the great river itself. down into a bird-haunted ravine and 



Of the two, the ruby-crowned is thr seated myself on a log to gather inspir- 



easier to find ; I have seen at one time as ation for my day's labors, listening to the 



many as six of these sprightly mites in chorus of residents and migrants — 



one haw tree not more than twenty feet March in Mississippi is as far advanced 



high, and twenty or more of them in the as May in the latitude of Central Illinois 



course of an hour's walk in a certain lit- or Ohio ; up from the cane-brakes and 



tie valley in Woodford County, Illinois, magnolia groves came a medley ; a brown 



In the fall and winter it is usually hard thrasher, two cardinals, some whistling 



to get a good view of the bit of red which white throats, a song sparrow, and the 



is the species label on Regulus calendula, prince of southern singers, the mocking 



I remember working every day for a bird ; then suddenly there fell on my ear, 



week in his winter quarters in central sounding faint and far away, one of the 



Mississippi before I got a good look at sweetest, tenderest little songs I have 



the half concealed crown patch. In the ever heard. The bubble and enthusiasm 



spring, however, when his thoughts are of the Carolina wren, the soft, sweet, 



turning to the same subject as the young flutings of the mocking bird's nocturne, 



man's, he is much more generous of his a suggestion of the resonant tone of the 



charms ; perhaps it is the near approach song sparrow, with an underlying cur- 



of the mating and nesting season that rent of self-forgetful passion made music 



warms up his little heart, or it may be that I could not forget if I would, 



that he believes in the efficacy of bright Brown thrasher, cardinal, sparrows, even 



colors to catch the female eye. the mocking bird passed out of mind; 



The frequent glimpses of this tell-tale they could sing for me some other time 



tuft of ruby are not the least among the when this strange new melody was not 



mid- April treats, 'but the music of his coming out of the canes with every puff 



happy mating-time marks a red-letter day of the jessamine-laden breeze. I rose and 



in the long calendar of spring surprises, walked quietly over toward the thickest 



I will not go into any comparison of the of the brake and peered intently into 



color and the song of this bird, for I the leafy twilight, as I did so the sound 



realize how treacherous is the quagmire seemed to change direction and to come 



into which a man steps when he deliber- from the tree above ; no bird there, either. 



ately sets himself to compare two things Even a.s I looked, the music burst out 



so different in their appeal to one's sensi- afresh, apparently before my eyes, but 



bilities. stare as I might, only the little yellow 



The song of Regulus calendula is de- bells of the jessamine came into the field 

 serving of more attention than the public, of vision. At last as I was about to re- 

 even the bird-loving public, has hitherto turn to my seat on the log feeling that 

 bestowed upon it; indeed I cannot re- deep sense of defeat that only an ornith- 



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