Red-breasted Grosbeak 
131 
above he appears to be almost a black bird, 
for his upper parts, throat and breast are very- 
dark where his mate is brownish; but under- 
neath both are grayish white with patches of 
rusty red on their sides, the colour resembling 
a robin’s breast when its red has somewhat 
faded toward the end of summer. The white 
feathers on the towhee’s short, rounded wings 
and on the sides of his tail are conspicuous 
signals, as he flies jerkily to the nearest cover. 
You could not expect a bird with such small 
wings to be a graceful flyer. 
Rarely does he leave the ground except to 
sing his love-song. Then, mounting no higher 
than a bush or low branch, he entrances his 
sweetheart, if not the human critic, with a song 
to which Ernest Thompson Seton supplies the 
well-fitted words: Chuck-burr, pill-a will-a- 
will-a, 
RED-BREASTED GROSBEAK 
Among birds, as among humans, it is the 
father who lends his name to the family, how- 
ever difficult it may be to know the mother and 
children by it. Who that had not studied the 
books would recognise Mrs. Scarlet Tanager by 
her name? or Mrs. Purple Finch? or Mrs. 
Indigo Bunting? or Mrs. Rose-breasted Gros- 
