204 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



Sometimes the outer wall of the nest is made of common 

 dried grass, and the hair is used merely for lining. Three 

 or four eggs form the usual complement, sometimes five, 

 and they are bluish-green, thinly spotted with purplish 

 and blackish-brown, often more numerously at the larger 

 eud. They average .70 by .50 of an inch. As nests with 

 fresh eggs are found in May and in June, it is probable 

 that two broods are reared in most instances. 



It seems to me that the trills of the chippies are heard 

 more frequently in July than at any other time. This, 

 however, may be due to the fact that then many of the 

 songsters of the earlier season have become silent, and 

 the vocalism of the chipping sparrows is more apparent 

 from the lack of competing voices. They utter about seven 

 songs a minute, making about four hundred and twenty 

 per hour. They sing persistently at all times of the day, 

 and frequently repeat their trills in the darkness of tight 

 when restless or disturbed. If their total practice through 

 the day amounts to five hours, it is probable that they utter 

 more than two thousand songs in a day, and perhaps even 

 more ; a wonderful record for these little musicians. Their 

 efforts to enliven the warm afternoons of July are as 

 manifest as those of the indigo bunting, the song sparrow, 

 or the Maryland yellow-throat. Frequently they sing 

 from the ground, and it is said that their first announce- 

 ments of the approach of dawn are uttered while sitting 

 OQ the earth. Even before the first twitter of the robin 

 is beard at dawn, the trills of the chipping sparrows tell 

 of the coming day, surely a feeble introduction to the 

 grand chorus of early bird voices. 



Soon after sunset of one evening in August,'I was acci- 

 dentally made the interested observer of the movements 

 of a young chipping sparrow who was preparing to go to 

 bed. He darted into a small plum tree within ten feet of 

 me, settled on a slender branch in plain view, and then 

 began to preen his feathers, taking an occasional food 

 morsel from adjacent twigs. He was very leisurely and 

 deliberate in dressing his plumage, giving much atten- 

 tion to the tiny feathers under his wings. In dressing 

 his under wing-coverts, he frequently spread his dainty 

 wings until I could accurately distinguish the primaries. 



