Boys and girls who study birds are invited to send short accounts of their observations to 



this department. 



Our Doorstep Sparrow 



BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. 



jjj- V 



"^^nk'v' -'^ ^-t^ ' ■ T XON'T think that I mean the House, or English 



^■^j^^"''*?T - ^- ^'' ' Vi^l \J Sparrow, for he is quite a different bird. 



'-. Our little doorstep friend is the very smallest 



of all the brown Sparrows you know, and wears a 





N>f|^^'^'^^-' :*--' reddish brown cap, and a gray vest so plain it 



^-i"-' --C' ^ hasn't a single button or stripe on it. He is a 



dear, plump little bird, who sits in the sun and 



throws up his head and chippers away so happily that people call him 



the Chipping Sparrow. 



He comes to the doorstep and looks up at you as if he knew you 

 wanted to feed him, and if you scatter crumbs on the piazza he will 

 pick them up and hop about on the floor as if it were his piazza as 

 well as yours. 



One small Chippy, whom his friends called Dick, used to light on 

 the finger of the kind man who fed him. and use his hand for dining- 

 room, and sometimes when he had had a very nice breakfast, he would 

 hop up on a finger, perch, and sing a happy song ! 



Dick was so sure his friends were kind and good, that as soon as 

 his little birds were out of the nest, he brought them to be fed too. 

 They did not know what a nice dining-room a hand makes, so they 

 wouldn't fly up to it, but when the gentleman held their bread and 

 seeds close to the ground, they would come and help themselves. 



chippy's nest. 



If you were a bird and were going to build a nest, where would 

 you put it ? At the end of a row of your brothers' nests, as the 

 Eave Swallows do ? Or would that be too much like living in a 

 row of brick houses in the city ? Chipping Sparrows don't like to 

 live too close to their next door neighbors. They don't mind if a 

 Robin is in the same tree, on another bough, but they want their 

 own branch all to themselves. 



And they want it to be a branch, too. Other birds may build 

 their nests on the ground, or burrow in the ground, or dig holes in 



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