THE SONG SPARROW. 



87 



is the choice morsel of everything that 

 preys, — cats, skunks, weasels, red squir- 

 rels, hawks, crows, jays, shrikes, blacl- 

 snakes, and garter snakes. How would 

 this motley company fare, were it not for 

 the annual crop of Song Sparrows? And 

 the wonder of it is that the brave heart 

 holds out, and sings its song of trust and 

 love with the wrecks of three nests behind 

 it, and the harvest not yet past. 



The nest of this species is usually 

 carefully constructed of weed-stalks, 

 vegetable fibers, and grasses, with 

 dead leaves and trash in endless va- 

 riety. It is deeply cup-shaped, with 

 a rim neatly turned, lined with tine 

 grasses, grass-stems or horse-hair. 

 Probably more than half are upon 

 the ground, sunk flush with the sur- 

 face or bedded in trash, commonly 

 under the protection of root, stick, 

 or grass tussock. Half as many 

 more occupy grass tussocks at some 

 distance from the ground; while the 

 remainder are placed in briar tan- 

 gles, fence-corners, declining limits of trees, forks of trees, etc. On two occa- 

 sions I have found nests occupying little caves in the punk of decayed stumps. 

 Others appear in tussocks of saw grass, entirely surrounded by water. Cat- 

 tails are a favorite place. One female in a ground nest regularly required 

 about three seconds in which to extricate herself from the tangle of her own 

 ingenuity. Another chose a retreat underneath a chance limb which a wind 

 had blown down upon a perfectly smooth woodland lawn. The nest shown 

 in the illustration on the preceding page was found placed in the center of a 

 spreading fern in a green-house on the Ohio State University grounds, and 

 the young were successfully raised. In short, there is no place out of doors, 

 or nearly so, where a man with his feet planted on the soil may not expect 

 to find a Song Sparrow's nest. 



■ar Licking Reservoir. fhoto by (.', 

 AX UNUSUAL NESTING SITE. 



VEST CI.NTAI 



3UR ECGS OCCU 



