THE OSPREY. 



A.O Illustrated WLagazine of Popular Ornithology. 



F'lablistieci Ivlontlnly ex:cept iri July and. A.ugi_ist. 



Volume 2. 



DECEMBER, 1897. 



Number 4. 



RECENT ACQUAINTANCES. 



PROF. P. M. SILLOWAY, ROODHOUSE, ILL. 



HOllGH the ornithologist Sparrow ha.s begun, and the correspondence to the 

 may ramble over the song of the Indigo Bunting has ceased, the perform- 

 same region many ance drifts into a counterpart of the song of the 

 times, he is likely to find Brown Thrasher; the measures, however, are less 

 something new each time he prolonged and varied. The Lark Sparrow seems to 

 seeks to deepen his friend- repeat its notes in groups of threes, and six or seven 

 ship with nature. On some groups constitute the characteristic song, the whole 

 days the birds may be more performance being executed in clear, vibrant tones 

 ' vivacious, or the observer's and with more volume and spirit than I have asso- 

 mind may be in more appreciative ciated with the singing of any others of our Spar- 

 mood. Now and then the birds discover traits rows. Indeed, there is wonderful variation in the 

 seemingly new, and sometimes one is fortunate in trilling of this woodland vocalist; and the mingling 

 seeing birds of rare occurrence in his neighborhood, of eloquent outbursts and softly uttered phrases 

 This summer I heard for the first time the song of the gives the singing unwonted interest to me and ren- 

 Lark Sparrow. This species is a regular resident of ders it expressive of sympathetic emotion, 

 this region in summer, yet each season I see only two In extending my acquaintance with Bell's Vireo I 

 or three representatives of it. Last summer I found was unusually fortunate this summer. It is only in 

 my first nest of this fine, large Sparrow. Thus little patches of shrubbery here and there that I find this 

 by little we add to our knowledge of our avian diminutive greenlet in this region. I have met it in 

 friends, and we are fortunate if we gain one new fact only three or four small areas, and when I heard its 

 in each visit to the haunts of our feathered neighbors, emphatic, hurried song I immediately accepted the 

 Along the border of a wood I startled a Lark Spar- invitation to enter its tangled domain. Like the 

 row from the path ahead of me down the slope of a other Vireos, this greenlet prefers the shade of its 

 mound. Its beautifully decorated tail, with its secluded haunts. None of the Viroes sing in the full 

 bands of black and white, attracted my attention as sunlight, and they must be sought in the dark shelter 

 the bird flew from me and alighted upon a fencepost of the foliage. Bell's Vireo is easily found, however, 

 on the opposite side of the ravine. Perched upon if the bird-seeker will be guided into its haunts by 

 the post, the sparrow suffered me to mount the in- the song it utters so nervously ; for somewhere in the 

 cline toward him and to approach within ten feet of tangle from which its song issues will be suspended 

 him. I could see his bright chestnut crown, cleft its gossamer-thatched tenement, and here and there 

 by a point of white running up to the middle of the in the same clump of bushes it flits and sings through 

 upper forehead. There were also lines of white the day. Led by the earnest exhortation of the little 

 radiating from the bill over sides of the head. While bush dweller, I pushed my way into the thicket, re- 

 examining this bird, my attention was drawn to an gardless of the spines and prickles which defended 

 unfamiliar song issuing from the foliage of an adja- the passages into the stronghold of this pigmy 

 cent tree. Moving nearer the place, I was not sur- monarch of the bush. Crouching among the un- 

 prised to flush two more Lark Sparrows, one of friendly stems, I listened to the "Quit, oh quit, now 

 which alighted upon a post at some distance and quit, why can't you hear ? " of the restless Vireo and 

 there sang repeatedly to my gratification. The open- was afforded several opportunities of observing its 

 ing notes of the song were familiar, and I immedi- nervous movements. 



ately remarked their resemblance to the song of the Guided by experience, I had little difficulty in find- 

 Indigo Bunting, though they seemed to me to lack ing the dainty habitation of the Vireo. It was swung 

 the full force and spirit of the best summer songs of in a drooping fork of a blackberry shoot, somewhat 

 that ornate lyrist. After the singing of the Lark less than two feet from the ground, and following the 



