Sparrow WESTERN BIRDS 



lack the rufous cap and the black before it, having the 

 top of the head streaked like the back, and the bill 

 brown. The young birds also have breasts streaked 

 with black. The rump remains gray at all times of 

 year and is a good distinguishing mark. 



The plumage of the western birds is similar but the 

 coloration is paler. 



These little Sparrows are great talkers and they care 

 not that their voices are not particularly pleasing. The 

 common note is a metallic chip, which is kept up with 

 such monotonous regularity as to be almost unbearable. 

 The song, if such it can be called, is a similar insect-like 

 trill, or buzz. Chippy -chippy -chippy -chippy -chippy the 

 bird sings in his high-pitched wiry voice with as much 

 enthusiasm as if the performance were really worth 

 while. To the little female brooding her treasures I 

 doubt not that this "song" is a sweet one. 



The nests are daintily made of fine twigs, grasses and 

 rootlets, lined with horsehair, which has given the bird 

 one of its names — Hair Bird. They are placed in bushes, 

 vines, or trees from a few feet to twenty. The eggs are 

 a delicate Robin's egg blue spotted at one end with black, 

 which is unusual since most Sparrows have whitish 

 ground color overlaid with brownish markings. 



Two broods of from three to five young are raised. 



Wonderful stories are told of the good these little 

 Chippies do. Great quantities of caterpillars and grass- 

 hoppers are eaten by them, one having carried fifty 

 caterpillars to its young in twelve hours; fifty-four can- 

 kerworms were eaten at one time by one of these birds, 

 and they are fond of browntail-moth, gipsy-moth, 

 caterpillars, army worms, and pea lice, which in one year 

 caused a loss of the pea crop of Maryland of $300,000, 

 as well as ants, beetles, bugs, leaf hoppers, etc. More 

 than that the birds are great seed eaters doing an infinite 

 amount of good in destroying noxious weeds. 



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