454 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are woodland flowers and flowers of the field, and flowers that 

 grow on the border line among the briers and cripple as though 

 undecided which dwelling place to choose, or lingering in the 

 delights of both. Who ever found the mullein and the toadflax 

 in the depths of a wood or picked an anemone in open fields ? 

 Yet there are flowers that find a congenial home in each, like the 

 bluets, spring beauties, and the star of Bethlehem. In every 

 province of life we find forms peculiar to the open grass lands 

 and forms characteristic of the woodland, each " to the manner 

 born." 



These points of comparison apply especially to bird life. Every 

 boy who has indulged the natural propensity to haunt running 

 streams and wild, delectable places, to pursue shy birds and pry 

 into the secret of their nests, knows full well that there are birds 



of the fields and birds of 

 the woods. A student of 

 ornithology soon learns 

 that certain groups or 

 families of birds are pe- 

 culiar either to the woods 

 or to the fields, and that 

 their organization is in 

 more or less entire ac- 

 cordance with the man- 

 ner of life induced by 

 the physical conditions 

 of the area they inhab- 

 it. Among our Eastern 

 American birds the tit- 

 mice, wrens, creepers, nuthatches, wood warblers, tanagers, vireos, 

 shrikes, waxwings, tyrant fly-catchers, the woodland group of 

 thrushes, crows, jays, and woodpeckers are all tree-lovers, for the 

 most part nesting in trees, and, if on or near the ground, usually 

 in the depths of tangled underwood. On the other hand, a num- 

 ber of species belonging to the large family of the finches (spar- 

 rows, buntings, etc.) are strictly birds of the grass lands, anc| this 

 is true also of some members of the closely allied family of star- 

 lings, blackbirds, and orioles, notably in the case of the field lark, 

 some blackbirds, and the bobolink. 



Among the finches that are strictly grass-loving and dwellers 

 in fields are three well-known Eastern species — the vesper, savan- 

 na, and grasshopper sparrows. The vesper sparrow, so called 

 from its soft, rich song that fills the still evening air on upland 

 pastures and immortalized by the pen of John Burroughs, is a 

 familiar inhabitant of open fields and roadsides. Like most of its 

 relatives it is a plain-colored bird, streaks of soft brown blending 



Fig. 1. — Vesper Sparrow. 



