The Vesper-bird begins with all his kindred in a general concert at early dawn, after which they are comparatively silent until sunset, when they repeat their concert, with still greater zeal than they chanted in the morning.  It is from this circumstance that it has obtained the name it bears—­from its evening hymn, or vespers.  I have heard this name applied to it only in one locality; but it is so precisely applicable to its habits, that I have thought it worthy of being retained as its distinguishing cognomen.  There are particular states of the weather that frequently call out the birds of this species into a general concert at other periods of the day—­as when rain is suddenly followed by sunshine, or when a clear sky is suddenly darkened by clouds, presenting to them a sort of occasional morn and occasional even.  It may be remarked, that you seldom hear one of these birds singing alone; but when one begins, all others in the vicinity immediately join him.

The usual resorts of the Vesper-bird are the pastures and the hay-fields; hence the name of Grass-Finch, by which he is usually distinguished.  His voice is heard frequently by the rustic roadsides, where he picks up a considerable portion of his subsistence.  This is the little bird that so generally serenades us during our evening walks, at a little distance from the town, and not so far into the woods as the haunts of the Thrushes.  When we go out into the country, on pleasant days in June or July, at nightfall, we hear multitudes of them singing sweetly from a hundred different points in the fields and farms.

Among the birds which are endowed by Nature with the gift of song in connection with gaudy plumage is the American Goldfinch, or Hemp-bird, (Fringilla tristis,) one of the most interesting and delicate of the feathered tribe.  Of all our birds this bears the closest resemblance to the Canary, both in his plumage and in the notes of his song.  He cannot be ranked with the finest of our songsters, being deficient in compass and variety.  But he has great sweetness of tone, and is equalled by few birds in the rapidity of his execution.  His note of complaint is exactly like that of the Canary, and is heard at almost all times of the year.  He utters also, when flying, a very animated series of notes, during the repeated undulations of his night, and they seem to be uttered with each effort he makes to rise.

It is remarkable that this bird, though he often rears two broods in a season, does not begin to build his nest until July, after the first broods of the Robin and the Song-Sparrow have flown from their nests.  Mr. Augustus Fowler[2] is of opinion, from his observation of their habits of feeding their young, that the cause of this procrastination is, “that they would be unable to find, in the spring and early summer, those new and milky seeds which are the necessary food of their young,” and takes occasion to allude to that beneficent law of Nature which provides that these birds “should not bring forth their young until the very time when those seeds used by them for food have passed into the milk, in which state they are easily dissolved by the stomach, and when an abundant supply may always be found.”