September, 1902. 
THE CONDOR 
1 2 r 
neat combination of brown, blackish 
and white stripes on the head, not un- 
like Zonotrichia leucophrys, and dull ir- 
regular streakings on the back. But 
when she flies, she looks almost as 
gaudy as her mate, for her breast is a 
bright, tawny yellow, and her wings 
and tail are marked like his. 
Their flight is wavy and finch-like, 
and as they fly their wings make a soft 
“p-r r-t — p-r-r-t” like a canary’s. As 
they flit about the tall oaks, which here 
have a drooping growth very like the 
eastern elm, nipping off the buds, they 
have a characteristic habit of springing 
to the end of a drooping spray and 
clinging there, back downward, looking 
much too heavy for such a position. 
They are usually found in white oaks 
or madrones, seeming to love the sun- 
shine and t^ e light, open foliage. I 
have never seen them alight on the 
ground, as the robin, which somewhat 
resembles the male in color, so often 
does. 
The difference between the songs of 
different individuals have been already 
referred to. This strong individuality 
is a marked characteristic of the gros- 
beak, and one which makes them very 
attractive to those who watch him care- 
fully. But in analyzing the song of any 
individual, you will also be astonished 
to find what a variet}" it contains. 
There are two entirely distinct t3"pes of 
song, so different that I am sure no one 
hearing them for the first time without 
seeing the bird, could imagine that the^^ 
came from the same throat. The usual 
well-known song is loud and rollicking, 
a series sometimes of as many as sixty 
distinct phases of three or four notes, 
each with marked accent and great vari- 
ety in the melody. The rhythm is the 
most noticeable thing, and that by 
which the song is recognized. From 
time to time, but onh" on very bright 
days, when the bird’s heart is too full 
of joy for this ordinary means of ex- 
pre.ssion, comes as an interlude, the 
second song, a truly rapturous out-pour- 
ing of the bird’s soul. It is given in a 
softer voice, a fine, high, clear quality 
of tone, full of retards and diminuendos, 
trills and shakes like the canary’s high- 
est notes. It reminds one of the minor 
interludes in one of Chopin’s mazurkas, 
where the minor cadence and hesitating 
rhythm only serve to intensify the rap- 
ture of the mood. Like Chopin, he al- 
ways returns from this land of sifting 
moonbeams and quivering, .silvery light 
to the ordinary world of sun and action. 
This secondary song has been well 
desciibed by Olive Thorne Miller in 
“A Bird Lover in the West.” The 
birds whose note most nearly resembles 
the grosbeak’s are the robin, the oriole, 
and the tanager. Possibly the reason 
he is .so little appreciated is that his 
song is often mi.staken for the robin’s 
and the credit given to the better 
known bird. I know that was what I 
did at first. I noticed one day that a 
certain “robin” had invented some new 
passages — trills and turns — in his song, 
and said to mj^self, “There is a robin of 
genius, I must look him up.” But 
when I found the singer it was a gros- 
beak, and so it often happens, till I 
gradually learned to distinguish their 
notes. The robin’s has far less variety, 
and is sung chiefly in early morning 
and evening. 
Whatever the reason that the gros- 
beak is generally so little known and 
appreciated, anyone who will learn to 
know him thoroughly, will feel as I do, 
that he has a friend for life, and that 
a new joy has entered into the summer. 
I like to think of my last visit to my 
favorite pair, when, lying in the long 
gra.ss, I watched the stars come out. 
The st)ng of the male rang out well with 
the last rays of the sun, and after 
twittering softly to his mate on the 
nest he took up a place in a bush close 
to my head and sang a soft good- night. 
And so I leave them, safe in their ver\^ 
insignificance, lost without any effort at 
concealment, their home just like thou- 
sands of others among miles and miles 
of tree-covered mountains, unsought 
and unharmed. 
Liet' ley’ s, June Sth, igo2. 
