52 



BIRDS OF AxMERICA 



readily be identified by its stronq-ly marked 

 breast, its stubby bill, and its sligiill\' forked 

 tail, as shown in flight. 



The Song Sparrow takes his singing very 

 seriously. Almost invariably he presents his 

 recital from the top of a bush or a fence post 

 or a comparatively low tree. .Always as he be- 

 gins to sing he throws his head backward, and 

 points his bill at an angle of about 45 degrees, and 

 this position he retains until the song is finished. 

 He seems intent upon sending his little prayer 

 of thankfulness straight up to heaven, by the 

 shortest route. Over and over again the sweet 

 and sincere little petition is ofifered — and who 

 can doubt that it is heeded? There arc very 

 many \ai'iatinns of the song, and sometimes 



Photo by S. A. L.iUnJgw 



YOUNG SONG SPARROWS 



several are presented in succession by the same 

 singer. Mr. Burroughs records one bird who 

 " had five distinct songs, each as markedly dif- 

 ferent from the others as any human songs, 

 which he repeated one after another. He may 

 have had a sixth or a seventh, but he bethought 

 himself of some business in the next field, and 

 flew away before he had exhausted his reper- 

 tory." (IViiys of Nature) Mr. Mathews de- 

 votes several pages, in his Field Book of Wild 

 Birds and Their Music, to many variations of 

 the song, reduced to musical notation. The 

 commonest form, however, begins with two notes 

 on the same pitch, followed by a third, four or 

 five tones higher, all of these accented, and fol- 

 lowed by a descending run in the same general 

 rhythm. Whatever the form of the song, how- 

 ever, its spirit is always the same, and Mr. 

 Burroughs interprets this very faithfully when 

 he says that it expresses " simple faith and 

 trust." 



No other bird of the temperate and arctic 



regions of North America, with the possible ex- 

 cei)tion of the Horned Lark, has proved so sen- 

 sitive to influences of physical environments, and 

 as a result it has become divided into a large 

 number of geographic forms, some of extensive, 

 others of very circumscribed range. In every 

 case the area of distribution coincides exactly 

 with the uniformity or continuity of physical 

 conditions. Thus the form having the widest 

 distribution is that inhabiting the Atlantic water- 

 shed, or the entire region from the Atlantic 

 coast to the wooded valleys of the Great Plains, 

 while those of the inost limited range belong 

 to the Pacific slope, where the topographic and 

 resultant climatic features are so varied and 

 complicated. In California nearly every dis- 

 tinct drainage area has its own' peculiar form of 

 the Song Sparrow ; one form, the Alameda 

 .Song Sparrow {Mclospiza mclodia pusillula), 

 is strictly limited to the salt marshes around San 

 Francisco Bav. 



The Mountain Song Sparrow {Melospiza 

 uichidia iiiiiiilaiia) is found in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain district of the United States west to and in- 

 cluding the .Sierra Nevada, in California, north 

 to eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and south- 

 ern Montana; south in winter to western Texas 

 and northern Mexico. In coloration it is grayer 

 than the type species, its tail and wings are 

 longer, and its bill is smaller and relatively more 

 slender. 



Merrill's .Song Sparrow {Melospiza mclodia 

 inerrilli ) is very much like the Mountain Song 

 Sparrow : it is slightly darker and more uniform 

 above and the grayish edging to the feathers of 

 the shoulders and the space between them are 

 less strongly contrasted with the darker centers 

 which are usually more brown than black. It 

 breeds from northern California (in the moun- 

 tains), through Oregon and ^^'ashington east of 

 the Cascade Mountains, to northwestern Idaho ; 

 in winter it goes south into Nevada, Utah, 

 .\rizona, and northern Sonora. 



The slender bill of the Desert Song Sparrow 

 (Melospiza mclodia falla.v) is like that of the 

 Mountain Song Sparrow, but its tail and wings 

 average decidedly shorter and its coloration is 

 conspicuously paler and more rusty. It inhabits 

 the Sonoran desert district of southwestern 

 Arizona, southern Nevada, southeastern Cali- 

 fornia, northeastern Lower California, and 

 Sonora. 



Heermann's Song Sparrow ( lifelospiza luc- 

 lotlui Ih-cnuaiuii) is found in the central valleys 

 of California, including the lower levels of the 



