Birds of Oregon ami Washington 75 



either side of this distinguishing mark. In the 

 Atlantic States the White-crowned Sparrow is 

 very rare — is seldom seen and seldom heard. 

 But in Oregon and Washington a species of this 

 bird is on nearly every bush ; and all the spring 

 long, and most of the summer through, from 

 early morning till night — and even in the night — 

 can the exquisite notes of this gentle and friendly 

 bird be heard. Often, through the darkest 

 nights, in the Virginia creeper or honeysuckle 

 around the porch or piazza, he utters his plain- 

 tive song — seeming to say, as one sensitive 

 observer has imagined it : " Sweet, sweet, listen 

 to me, won't you ? " 



This bird may be called " the American Night- 

 ingale," for surely its night-song has all the quiet 

 melancholy that one's imagination would attribute 

 to the notes of a bird in the hours of darkness. 



There are two slightly different kinds of this 

 Sparrow in our States.* 



They are the Nuttall's and the Gambel's White- 



* Since the publication of the first edition of this book, the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union, the authoritative body in this country in 

 the naming of birds, has accepted Mr. Ridgway's change of the names 

 of these two Sparrows. According to him, the Gambel's Sparrow of 

 the first edition becomes the Nuttall's, and the Intermediate becomes 

 the Gambel's. 



