Page:Rural Hours.djvu/451

Rh The equally brilliant Scarlet Tanager, or black-winged red-bird, as it is familiarly called, is found in the lower counties, though not numerous.

The summer Red-bird, also, quite a tropical bird, is occasionally seen near New York; we once chanced to meet quite a flock of them on Long Island.

The Blue Grosbeak, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, both handsome birds, are also found in the State.

The Crossbills, again, are seen in our northern counties.

The Cuckoo of this part of the world is interesting from the associations connected with the cry of the same bird in Europe—and, indeed, in Asia also—it is everywhere in the Old World looked upon as a harbinger of spring. The oldest song in the English language, said to date as far back as 1250, has a refrain in honor of this bird:

The Chinese call it by much the same name as the Europeans. And so did the ancient Greeks. We have the bird, but it attracts with us comparatively little attention; the robins, and blue-birds, and song-sparrows, are much more thought of; they arrive earlier, and are more common. The American cuckoo is much better