The Vesper Sparrow {Pooecetes gramineus gramineus) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Length : Six inches. 



Range: Eastern N. A. to the Plains, eastern Canada. 



Food : Wild seeds. 



A sober garb cannot conceal the quality of the wearer, even the Quaker 

 gray be made to cover alike saint and sinner. Plainness of dress, therefore, is 

 a fault to be readily forgiven, even in a bird, if it be accompanied by a voice of 

 sweet sincerity and a manner of self-forgetfulness. In a family where a modest 

 appearance is no reproach, but a warrant to health and long life, the Vesper 

 Sparrow is pre-eminent for modesty. You are not aware of his presence until 

 he disengages himself from the engulfing grays of the stalkstrewn ground or 

 dusty roadside and mounts a fence-rail to rhyme the coming or the parting day. 



The arrival of Vesper Sparrow in middle early spring may mark the supreme 

 effort of that particular warm wave, but you are quite content to await the 

 further travail of the season while you get acquainted with this amiable new- 

 comer. Under the compulsion of sun and rain the sodden fields have been trying 

 to muster a decent green to hide the ugliness of winter's devastation. But 

 wherefore! Tiie air is lonely and the fence rows untenanted. The Meadow 

 Larks, to be sure, have been romping about for several weeks and getting bolder 

 every day, but they are boisterous fellows, drunk with air and mad with sun- 

 shine ; the winter-sharpened ears wait hungrily for the poet of common day. 

 The morning he comes a low, sweet murmur of praise is heard on every side. 

 You know it will ascend unceasingly thenceforth, and spring is different. 



Vesper Sparrow is the typical ground bird. He eats, sleeps, and rears his 

 family upon the ground ; but to sing — ah ! that is different ! — nothing less than 

 the top rail of the fence will do for that ; a telegraph pole or wire is better, and 

 a lone tree in the pasture is not to be despised. The males gather in spring such 

 places to engage in decorous concerts of rivalry. The song consists of a variety 

 of simple pleasing notes, each uttered two or three times, and all strung together 

 to the number of four or five. The characteristic introduction is a mellow 

 whistled he-ho a little softer in tone than the succeeding notes. The scolding 

 note, a thrasher-like kissing sound, tsook, will sometimes interrupt his song if 

 a strange listener gets too close. Early morning and late evening are the 

 regular song periods, but the conscientious and indefatigable singer is more apt 

 to interrupt the noon stillness than not. 



Since the Vesper Sparrow is a bird of open country and uplands, it cares 

 little for the vicinity of water, but it loves the dust of country roads as dearly 

 as an old hen, and the daily dust bath is a familiar sight to every traveler. While 

 seeking the food of weed-seeds and insects, it runs industriously about upon 

 the ground, skulking rather than flitting for safety. Altho not especially timor- 

 ous, it appears to take a sort of professional pride in being able to slip about 

 among the weed-stems unseen. 



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