184 



FIELD SPABBOW 



the memory ; and in a country where it is seldom 

 heard, it is a song that I personally would walk 

 miles to hear. While the feo song is the con- 

 ventional one of the Field Sj^arrow, it is said to 

 have many variations. In a field in Maryland 

 I have heard the usual song on one side and a 

 totally different one on the other, one curiously 



like a tune, with three 

 definite sets of four 

 notes each, or rather 

 the same note repeated 

 four times, the three 

 sets given in descend- 

 ing scale, and the tune 

 completed by a fourth 

 set of varied notes 

 thrown up higher on 

 the scale. 



Living in fields, th,e 

 Field Sparrow does 

 good by destroying 

 the seeds of amaranth, 

 chickweed, pigweed, 

 knotgrass, and fox- 

 tail, besides eating a 

 large number of grass- 

 hoppers, injurious cat- 

 erpillars, leaf -eating beetles, and the saw-fly that 

 produces the currant worm. Its nest is of coarse 

 grasses and rootlets put near the ground. The 



Fig. 96. 



Amaranth, eaten by Field 



Sparrow. 



