APPENDIX. 149 



Field-Sparrow. — Contin. 



Mr. Torrey gives much the same description of the 

 field-sparrow. He finds the song, however, a " strict 

 monotone " : — 



" One more of the innovators (these heretics, as they are most likely 

 called by their more conservative brethren) is the field-sparrow, better 

 known as Spizella pusilla. His usual song consists of a simple line of 

 notes, beginning leisurely, but growing shorter and more rapid to the close. 

 The voice is so smooth and sweet, and the acceleration so well managed, 

 that, although the whole is commonly a strict monotone, the effect is not 

 in the least monotonous. This song I once heard rendered in reverse 

 order, with a result so strange that I did not suspect the identity of the 

 singer till I had crept up within sight of him. Another of these spar- 

 rows, who has passed the last two seasons in my neighborhood, habitually 

 doubles the measure, going through it in the usual way, and then, just as 

 you expect him to conclude, catching it up again, Da capo." — Torrey, B. : 

 Birds in the Bush, pp. 39-40. 



liinnet. (See p. 37.) 



" There is a strong resemblance to the song of the warbling vireo, 

 and it was undoubtedly this finch which Thoreau tells us in his Journal 

 he heard in April, and was unable to identify." — Nelson, H. L. : Bird- 

 songs about Worcester, p. 25. 



" He stands at the head of the finches, as the hermit at the head of the 

 thrushes." — Burrougbs, J. : Wake-robin, p. 69. " 



White-throated Sparrow. (See p. 42 ) 



" Notwithstanding the slighting manner in which the song of this bird 

 is spoken of by some writers, in certain parts of the country its clear, 

 prolonged, and peculiar whistle has given to it quite a local fame and 

 popularity. Among the White Mountains, where it breeds abundantly, 

 it is known as the peabody bird, and its remarkably clear whistle re- 

 sounds in all their glens and secluded recesses. Its song consists of 

 twelve distinct notes, which are not unfrequently interpreted into various 

 ludicrous travesties. As this song is repeated with no variations, and 

 quite frequently from early morning until late in the evening, it soon 

 becomes quite monotonous." — Baird, Brewer, and Kidgrray : North Amer- 

 ican Birds, vol. i., Land-Birds, p. 676. 



