Page:Condor4(5).djvu/21

 September, 19o2. [ THE CONDOR 121' neat combination of brown, blackish and white stripes on the head, not un- like Zonotrichia leucoibhcvs, 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. have never seen them alight on the ground, as the robin, which somewhat resembles the male in color, s 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 variety it contains. There are two entirely distinct types of song, so different that I am sure no one hearing them for the first time without seeing the bird, could imagine that they 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 only on very bright days, when the bird's heart is too full of joy for this ordinary means of ex- pression, 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 described 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 mistaken for the tobin'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 myself, "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 tobin'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 stunmet. I like to think of my last visit to my favorite pair, when, lying in the long grass, I watched the stars come out. The sting 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 very 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. Lieficy's, Jne 8th, '9o2.