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A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of The Audubon Societies 



Vol. XVIII May-^June, 1916 No. 3 



The Chipping Sparrow 



By NEWTON MILLER, Norton, Mass. 

 With photOEcraphs by the author 



THAT this would be a dreary old world without birds has been well said. 

 They have come to be an integral part of our lives, largely from the 

 esthetic point of view. The conception, however, that a bird's life is all 

 song and sunshine is misleading to say the least, but it is only comparatively re- 

 cently that any serious attempt has been made to determine the actual work 

 of the songsters. Such is the object of this brief chapter from the lives of a 

 pair of Chipping Sparrows, presenting a glimpse, only, into their domestic 

 affairs. 



These birds chose, at the end of May, a nesting-site in an evergreen down 

 at the corner of the garden, and early in June a dainty structure of rootlets, 

 lined with a liberal amount of horse-hair, was swaying among the twigs of the 

 larch, not more than fifteen feet from the ground. In due season it was made 

 the recipient of three bluish green eggs, scarcely more than a half inch in length, 

 with brownish black specks on the larger ends. Incubation followed anon, and 

 on the morning of June 25 two hatched; the third proving to be infertile w^as 

 subsequently ejected. 



A desire to see all that transpired in and about the nest led to an arrange- 

 ment of mirrors, which permitted the observer to see into the nest and also its 

 immediate surroundings. 



This simple apparatus was soon in readiness, but the birds objected to it so 

 strongly that we removed it for the day. On the morrow it was deemed best to 

 start with the mirror far out on the limb, and then at intervals to move it a 

 little nearer the nest, thereby allowing the old birds to become accustomed to 

 it gradually. This scheme worked, and by night the mirrow was in place. All 

 fear of the glass disappeared on the following day, and no attention was paid 

 to it except when one of the Sparrows tried to drive away his image in it. 



Thus with the birds fully reconciled, the observer, armed with a pair of 



