THE SONG SPARROW. 



Glimmers gay the leafless thicket 

 Close beside my garden gate, 

 Where, so light, from post to wicket. 

 Hops the Sparrow, blithe, sedate; 

 Who, with meekly folded wing, 

 Comes to sun himself and sing. 



It was there, perhaps, last year, 

 That his little house he built; 

 For he seemed to perk and peer 

 And to twitter, too, and tilt 

 The bare branches in between, 

 With a fond, familiar mien. 



■ — Geokgk Parsons Lathrop. 



nearly 

 round, 



E do not think it at all 

 amiss to say that this dar- 

 ling among song birds 

 can be heard singing 

 everywhere the whole year 

 although he is supposed to 

 come in IVIarch and leave us in Nov- 

 ember. We have heard him in Feb- 

 ruary, when his little feet made tracks 

 in the newly fallen snow, singing as 

 cheerily as in April, May, and June, 

 when he is supposed to be in ecstacy. 

 Even in Augitst, when the heat of 

 the dog-days and his molting time 

 drive him to leafy seclusion, his liquid 

 notes may be listened for with cer- 

 tainty, while "all through October 

 they sound clearly above the rustling 

 leaves, and some morning he comes to 

 the dog-wood by the arbor and an- 

 nounces the first frost in a song that is 

 more direct than that in which he 

 told of spring. While the chestnuts 

 fall from their velvet nests, he is 

 singing in the hedge ; but when the 

 brush heaps burn away to fragrant 

 smoke in November, they veil his 

 song a little, but it still continues." 

 While the Song Sparrow nests in 



the extreme northern part of Illinois, 

 it is known in the more southern 

 portions only as a winter resident. 

 This is somewhat remarkable, it is 

 thought, since along the Atlantic 

 coast it is one of the most abundant 

 summer residents throughout Mary- 

 land and Virginia, in the same lati- 

 tudes as southern Illinois, where it is 

 a winter sojourner, abundant, but 

 very retiring, inhabiting almost solely 

 the bushy swamps in the bottom 

 lands, and unknown as a song bird. 

 This is regarded as a remarkable 

 instance of variation in habits with 

 locality, since in the Atlantic states 

 it breeds abundantly, and is besides 

 one of the most familiar of the native 

 birds. 



The location of the Song Sparrow's 

 nest is variable; sometimes on the 

 ground, or in a low bush, but usually 

 in as secluded a place as its instinct of 

 preservation' enables it to find. A 

 favorite spot is a deep shaded ravine 

 through which a rivulet ripples, where 

 the solitude is disturbed only by the 

 notes of his song, made more sweet 

 and clear by the prevailing silence. 



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