324 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“Many birds that inhabit parts of the country having 
different climates vary thus in colour. In the hot, dry 
desert regions the bird will be found smaller and paler; 
in the cool, well-watered North, larger and of deeper hue. 
“Bob-white comes under this law, and our birds in 
New England are larger and of more brilliant hue than 
their southern brothers. 
“Now is a chance for you to look at the map. The 
Song Sparrow as we know him lives east of the Rockies. 
Start at the extreme northern portion of Alaska. Here 
is found the largest of the race, the Aleutian Song 
Sparrow. Next come down to the coast of British Colum- 
bia and Southern Alaska, where the rainfall is one hun- 
dred and twenty-five inches in a year, and you see the 
home of the Sooty Song Sparrow, the darkest in colour 
of all. 
“Tf you then travel farther to the desert regions of 
Nevada and Arizona, where the rainfall is only six inches, 
you will find the palest of all, the Desert Song Sparrow; and, 
finally, on the border between Mexico and Central America, 
lives the Mexican Song Sparrow, the smallest of the tribe.? 
‘So, wherever we wander our country over, we find this 
bird to be a reminder of home, which, after all, is the best 
thing that can happen to us, wherever we go or whatever 
we see; for the proof that journeys are healthful for body 
and mind lies in the joy with which, like the bird wander- 
ers, we turn homeward at the end. 
“You children may not think of this now. You may 
think, possibly, that home is dull and full of work, that 
1See Climatic Variations in Colour and Size of Song-sparrow, F. M. 
Chapman, 
