722 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



were its parent. The accompanying photograph shows 

 all three birds perched on the fence with the young just 

 •ifter the fourth bird had been driven away. 



Now how shall we interpret this strange preference 

 which the swallows were showing for one of their kind? 

 Are we to think that the pair of swallows had formed 

 some sort of an attachment for the third bird like a human 

 friendship? Was it a symptom of polygamy, or can we 

 read in it the origin of the social instinct in other swal- 

 lows by the overcoming of the natural antipathy to an- 

 other bird of the same species? It is not sufficient in 

 explaining the origin of a social instinct in birds to state 

 that they have come together for protection or on account 

 of restricted nesting sites because a far larger number of 

 species suffer from these restrictions or need of protection 

 than actually avail themselves of the opportunity of nest- 

 ing together. They have first to overcome that natural 

 antipathy toward one another, especially during the nest- 

 ing season, which has been so necessary for the dispersal 



of the species and for maintaining a sufficient food sup- 

 ply. The bank swallows have overcome it entirely, 

 whether through polygamy or what not, we do not yet 

 know. Possibly the rough-winged swallows are coming 

 to it. Certainly it offers a fascinating field for study and 

 e.xperiment to one located near a colony of social birds. 



These are but a few of the numerous observations 

 which anyone might make and which help to make the 

 study of ornithology most fascinating. The hundreds of 

 little points in a bird's home life, in its migrations, in 

 its feeding habits or in its coloration that are at present 

 without explanation will eventually yield their secret to 

 careful observers. Which discoveries may prove of great 

 value to mankind and which will only add to the treasury 

 of knowledge, the discoverer may never know and the 

 world may never recognize, but just as surely as anyone 

 interests himself sufficiently and trains himself to observe 

 conscientiously, just so will he learn new secrets and 

 reveal new truths about our every-day birds. 



The Sparrows 



THE sparrows, finches and buntings constitute the 

 largest family of birds, including over 1200 

 species and subspecies. They are found all 

 over the world except in Australia, but are most abundant 

 in the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, north 

 of Mexico, 91 species have been recorded and in Eastern 

 United States 45 species are to be found. 



By most ornithologists the sparrows are considered the 

 highest development of bird life. They are generalized in 

 their structures rather than specialized, and in this age 

 they are the dominant birds 

 of the world. Geologically 

 speaking, this might well be 

 called the " Age of Spar- 

 rows," just as in the past 

 we have had an Age of 

 Divers, an Age of Waders, 

 an Age of Woodpeckers, 

 etc. The strong conical 

 bills of the sparrows, 

 although thus modified for 

 crushing seeds, are at the 

 same time sharply pointed 

 to enable them to pick u]> 

 the smallest insects. They 

 are correspondingly versa- 

 tile in their feeding habits, 

 so that while in fall and 

 winter they feed almost en- 

 tirely upon seeds, during the summer they consume great 

 quantities of insects. They are, therefore, among our 

 most valuable birds both for their consumption of weed 

 seed and for their destruction of insect pests. 



The typical sparrows are rather dull-colored brown 

 and gray birds, usually heavy streaked, so that they 

 resemble the pattern of the grasses among which they live. 



(Faiiiily fringillidcc) 



for the majority of them are terrestrial birds, feeding and 

 nesting on or near the ground. The family includes, 

 however, the grosbeaks and buntings, many of which are 

 brilliantly colored, and the line separating the sparrow 

 family from that most brilliant family of all, the tanagers, 

 is nowhere very sharp. 



Many species of this family, especially exotic ones, 

 have beautiful songs, and are best known as cage birds, 

 the canary and bullfinch being familiar examples. Our 

 nati\e sparrows and grosbeaks are second only to the 



thrushes in their musical 



YUUXG I IIIPI'I.NL. bl'.VRkuWb 



These youngsters show the streaks which their father and mother and all their 



adult relations have lost. The bird in the middle is a young cowbird. 



ability. 



Sparrows build well- 

 formed nests of straws and 

 grasses, lined with finer 

 grasses and horsehair, a few 

 species using cotton or 

 feathers. Most of them 

 lay bluish eggs, more or less 

 spotted witli brown. Young 

 sparrows of all species are 

 more streaked than the 

 adults, and where there is 

 a difference in color be- 

 tween male and female, 

 they resemble the female. 

 F"or example, young chip- 

 ping sparrows have heavily 

 streaked breasts, although 

 this is true of neither parent, and the young of 

 the rose-breasted grosbeak are brownish and streaked 

 like the female bird. This shows that the original pat- 

 tern of the sparrow family was one of streaks, like that 

 of many species today, and that all the uniformly 

 or brilliantly marked species have developed away from 

 the main stem. 



