that, for once, the men of
science have made a mistake. What has any finch to do with a call like
_cherawink_, or with such a three-colored harlequin suit? But it is
unsafe to judge according to the outward appearance, in ornithology as
in other matters; and I have heard that it is only those who are foolish
as well as ignorant who indulge in off-hand criticisms of wiser men's
conclusions. So let us call the towhee a finch, and say no more about
it.

But whatever his lineage, it is plain that the chewink is not a bird to
be governed very strictly by the traditions of the fathers. His usual
song is characteristic and pretty, yet he is so far from being satisfied
with it that he varies it continually and in many ways, some of them
sadly puzzling to the student who is set upon telling all the birds by
their voices. I remember well enough the morning I was inveigled through
the wet grass of two pastures--and that just as I was shod for the
city--by a wonderfully foreign note, which filled me with lively
anticipations of a new bird, but which turned out to be the work of a
most innocent-looking towhee. It was perhaps this same bird, or his
brother, whom I one day heard throwing in between his customary
_cherawinks_ a profusion of _staccato_ notes of widely varying pitch,
together with little volleys of tinkling sounds such as his every-day
song concludes with. This medley was not laughable, like the chat's,
which it suggested, but it had the same abrupt, fragmentary, and
promiscuous character. All in all, it was what I never should have
expected from this paragon of self-possession.

For self-control, as I have elsewhere said, is Pipilo's strong point.
One afternoon last summer a young friend and I found ourselves, as we
suspected, near a chewink's nest, and at once set out to see which of us
should have the honor of the discovery. We searched diligently, but
without avail, while the father-bird sat quietly in a tree, calling with
all sweetness and with never a trace of anger or trepidation,
_cherawink, cherawink_. Finally we gave over the hunt, and I began to
console my companion and myself for our disappointment by shaking in the
face of the bird a small tree which very conveniently leaned toward the
one in which he was perched. By rather vigorous efforts I could make
this pass back and forth within a few inches of his bill; but he utterly
disdained to notice it, and kept on calling as before. While we were
laughing at