BLUB GROSBEAK. 213 



in the top of a bush or small tree, on a post, or a telegraph wire. Not infrequently 

 it pours forth its sweet strain while hidden in dense shrubs and vine-embowered trees. 

 The lover of bird songs will scarcely tire to listen to these, although rather short, but 

 exquisitely sweet, clear, melodious, and somewhat metallic notes. The whole performance 

 has something very peculiarly and indescribably pleasant. Some observers claim that the 

 song is much like that of the Indigo Bunting, and others compare it even to the Bobolink's 

 unrivalled reverie. In my judgment it has not the slightest resemblance either with 

 one or the other, f robably Cooper is not far amiss when he likens the song to that 

 of the California House-finch. To my ear the song had always a great similarity 

 to that of the Purple Finch, though not so quick and energetic. It sounds much 

 like the following syllables: thse-tbse-tsbe-woid-tsbe-tsbe, but these sounds are so 

 frequently varied and changed that words cannot do them full justice. In Texas I have 

 often heard the song late in the evening, and at such times the slower and somewhat 

 melancholic notes make a deep impression on the hearer. The bird sings from the time 

 of its arrival late in April until the young are hatched and have left the nest. 



Although of quick temper, this Grosbeak is a very peaceful bird. Its nesting range, 

 although comparatively small, will be bravely defended against intruders of its own 

 species, but with all the other birds of the shrubbery it usually lives in perfect harmony. 

 Generally only one pair is found in a garden, yet in Texas I have observed four pairs 

 breeding in a peach orchard of two acres. In this orchard I found quite a number 

 of dense young mountain cedars, said to be a variety of the common red cedar, though 

 its berries are about three times as large, of grayish color, very juicy, and highly relished 

 by many birds, especially by the Cedar-birds, in winter. The Painted Bunting quite often 

 nests near by and the Orchard Oriole, or Kingbird, sometimes built in the same tree. 



In spring and summer its food consists mainly of all kinds of insects, especially 

 smooth eater-pillars, moths, grasshoppers, plant-lice, bugs, and a few berries. The young 

 are fed almost entirely with insects. Later in the season, during August, the famiUes 

 gather in loose flocks, which lead a rather retired life in the Cherokee rose hedges, in 

 the bushy borders of the woods and in the shrubbery of pastures and fields. I -have 

 never found these birds in moist or marshy places. In September they subsist partly on 

 insects and berries, partly on seeds. By the middle of October almost all have left Texas 

 for their winter-quarters in southern Mexico, Yucatan, Honduras, Costa Rica, the West 

 Indies, etc. 



The flight of the Blue Grosbeak is short and low, usually leading only from one 

 thicket to another. During migration it mounts high into the air and then its flight is 

 rather hurried. On the ground, where most of the food is gathered, its motions are 

 somewhat awkward. It usually searches one place thoroughly and then hops. to another. 

 In the branches of trees and shrubs its movements denote that in these it is perfectly 

 at home. It has a predilection of perching in the tops of low bushes and trees, where 

 it swings up and down. 



In south-eastern Texas the Blue Grosbeak rarely makes its appearance before the 

 20th of April, and in south-western Missouri not before May 9th, always when the red 

 clover is in flower. This beautiful bird would be much more common in Texas and 

 Missouri, were not so many nests destroyed by the exceedingly numerous, half domesti- 



