BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



and transmuted its experiences. When the music had be- 

 come a soft cadence, we sought the singers, and found a 

 band of thrush like sparrows scratching in the old brown 

 leaves like bantam hens. They remained in the thicket 

 for several days, singing most rapturously toward sunset. 



Though shy birds and seen infrequently, fox sparrows 

 occasionally approach houses. During a deep spring 

 snow that covered the birds' natural food-supply, several 

 of these north-bound migrants came three times a day 

 with a flock of juncos to feed on bread-crumbs in our 

 back yard. Like Tommy Tucker, they "sang for their 

 supper." Twice they arrived before a fresh supply of 

 crumbs had been scattered; their songs announced their 

 presence and were accompanied by the gentle trill of the 

 juncos. A large flock remained in Middlesex Fells for 

 several days. 



Most bird-lovers consider an experience with fox spar- 

 rows as out of the ordinary. Thoreau wrote: "Is not 

 the coming of the fox-colored sparrow something more 

 earnest and significant than I have dreamed of? These 

 migrating sparrows bear all messages that concern my 

 life." ^ 



1 "Notes on New England Birds" — Thoreau, p. 311. 



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