126 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



perfume of the briar leaves, and when the pink buds 

 unfolded she could tell off the days of her brooding by the 

 petals that fluttered to the ground." 



The nest is formed outwardly of coarse materials, such 

 as corn husks, stems of weeds and grasses, twigs, and 

 rootlets. There is usually an intermediate layer of finer 

 dried grasses and an inner lining of horsehair. The 

 cavity averages two and a half by three inches in diam- 

 eter, and two inches in depth. It is a firm structure, 

 generally fiashioned while the materials are damp, thus 

 rendering the affair more compact and durable after it 

 dries in position. The eggs number from four to six, and 

 are light bluish-green, spotted with various shades of 

 brown, the larger end commonly having the spots more 

 noticeable and often forming a wreath. Davie states that 

 they range from .75 to .85 of an inch in length, and from 

 .55 to .60 of an inch in breadth. 



When disturbed in incubating and startled from her 

 nest, the female hops or flies about with gentle " pip " of 

 reproof, the male adding to her remonstrances against the 

 intrusion of their quiet home. When the intruder has 

 departed, the low chirping gives place to the accustomed 

 chant of joy and peace. 



In this locality the song sparrows cease to sing about 

 the twentieth of August. They resort in families to the 

 bushy margins of water-courses, and to weedy patches, 

 brush heaps, and hedges, associating with young towhees 

 and wrens. From the middle to the last of October 

 migrant song sparrows are seen in their haunts, shy and 

 silent, skulking in the bushes and weeds, feeding on dried 

 berries of the sumach in woods and along roadsides, and 

 on the seeds of various weeds. They perhaps at times 

 feed on the small berries of the gardens they frequent, as 

 the species is mentioned by Dr. C. Hart Merriam in a 

 partial list of birds which feed on mulberries, actually 

 observed by Dr. A. K. Fisher and himself. (Report of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, 1890, page 285.) 



As quoted from Eobert Eidgway, the autumnal migra- 

 tions of the song sparrow are made in company with the 

 white-throated sparrow, the swamp sparrow, the fox spar- 

 row, and other related species. They leave this locality 



I 



