174 MINOR SONGSTERS. 



truly melodious, while by one means and an- 

 other its wise little author contrives to impart 

 to it a very considerable variety, albeit within 

 pretty narrow limits. Last spring the field 

 sparrows were singing constantly from the mid- 

 dle of April till about the 10th of May, when 

 they became entirely dumb. Then, after a 

 week in which 1 heard not a note, they again 

 grew musical. I pondered not a little over 

 their silence, but concluded that they were just 

 then very much occupied with preparations for 

 housekeeping. 



The bird who is called indiscriminately the 

 grass finch, the bay-winged bunting, the bay- 

 winged sparrow, the vesper sparrow, and I know 

 not what else (the ornithologists have nick- 

 named him Pooecetes gramineus')^ is a singer 

 of good parts, but is especially to be com- 

 mended for his refinement. In form his music 

 is strikingly like the song sparrow's ; but the 

 voice is not so loud and ringing, and the two 

 or three opening notes are less sharply empha- 

 sized. In general the difference between the 

 two songs may perhaps be well expressed by 

 saying that the one is more declamatory, the 

 other more cantahile ; a difference exactly such 

 as we might have expected, considering the ner- 

 vous, impetuous disposition of the song sparrow 

 and the placidity of the bay-wing. 



