THE INVITATION 213 
The social sparrow, alias “hairbird,” alias “red- 
headed chipping-bird,” is the smallest of the spar- 
rows, and, I believe, the only one that builds in 
trees. 
The finches, as a class, all have short conical 
bills, with tails more or less forked. The purple 
finch heads the list in varied musical ability. 
Beside the groups of our more familiar birds 
which I have thus hastily outlined, there are numer- 
ous other groups, more limited in specimens but 
comprising some of our best known songsters. The 
bobolink, for instance, has properly no congener. 
The famous mockingbird of the Southern States 
belongs to a genus which has but two other repre- 
sentatives in the Atlantic States, namely, the cat- 
bird and the long-tailed or ferruginous thrush. 
The wrens are a large and interesting family, and 
as songsters are noted for vivacity and volubility. 
The more common species are the house wren, the 
marsh wren, the great Carolina wren, and the winter 
wren, the latter perhaps deriving its name from the 
fact that it breeds in the North. It is an exquisite 
songster, and pours forth its notes so rapidly, and 
with such sylvan sweetness and cadence, that it 
seems to go off like a musical alarm. 
Wilson called the kinglets wrens, but they have 
little to justify the name, except that the ruby- 
crown’s song is of the same gushing, lyrical charac- 
ter as that referred to above. Dr. Brewer was en- 
tranced with the song of one of these tiny minstrels 
in the woods of New Brunswick, and thought he 
