764 
THE BIRDS THAT WB SEE. 
discovered in search of i^luiider. 
He was the first to see the great 
red-tailed hawk that, with hun¬ 
gry eyes came sailing over the 
trees; he gave the alarm, l3ut 
took good care to keej) himself 
well under cover, leaving the bat¬ 
tle to another bird smaller than 
himself. But this smaller bird 
never hesitates : out of his home 
in the orchard, straight toward 
the pirate he soars, loudl}^ twit¬ 
tering his war-cry, and display¬ 
ing the warrior plume of fianie- 
colored feather in his head, 
upward, till high above both 
trees and hawk, he mounts, then 
SW0023S down on him in fierce 
anger, darting about, swooping 
and fluttering, striking dowm- 
ward between the great joinions 
of the hawk, till the latter is so 
tormented, mentally, rather than 
bodily, that he hurries away from 
the neighborhood, and the victo- 
Wild Canary or Thistle Bird—Male and Female. 
He is much like his cousin, the 
song sparrow, but is readily dis¬ 
tinguishable by the above charac¬ 
teristics. His name was given him 
on account of his habit of sino-ing 
chiefly in the evening after sun¬ 
down. 
There seems an active competi¬ 
tion among the birds to bring them¬ 
selves and their music prominently 
before the public. One or two, as 
the robin and shorelark, gain their 
point by singing earlier than the 
others ; one or two, like the vireo 
and the indigo bird, by singing in 
the heat of the day, when other 
birds are silent; and one or two 
achieve it by their power, brillianc}^, 
or indefatigability ; while our little 
vesper sj)arrow is said to have had 
the same end in view when he made 
his soft sweet carol the vesper-song 
of the uj^lands. 
But there, again, is the blue jay’s 
alarm note : he is a thief himself, 
and yet his righteous indignation is 
unequalled when another thief is 
Vesper Sparrow and Nest. 
