2 Bird Portraits 
to five in number, greenish white, thickly marked with shades of 
brown, lavender, or purple. Sometimes an egg is found in the 
nest much larger than the others; this has been laid by the lazy 
Cowbird. As the large egg receives most warmth and hatches first, 
the young Cowbird soon crowds out the rightful occupants of the 
nest, and the parent Song Sparrows will be seen later, working 
busily to feed a great homely youngster as large as themselves, who 
will afterwards go off to join a flock of his own kind. Probably 
every Cowbird has been reared at the expense of a brood of some 
small bird, Sparrow, Warbler, or Vireo. 
In June, the young Song Sparrows are able to take care of 
themselves, and the energetic parents build another nest and rear 
another brood. The brooding time is the chief period of song, so 
that birds that breed twice sing later in the summer than others. 
The Song Sparrow's little strain may be heard well into August; 
but toward the end of that month we hear from the cornfields and 
gardens a curious, husky warble, unlike the bright spring carol of 
the Song Sparrow, but nevertheless made by that bird. In the fall, 
and even during the winter, a warm bright day will occasionally 
induce a Song Sparrow to sing his lively spring song, so that 
where the Song Sparrow winters, the strain may be heard every 
month of the year. 
In the late summer and fall, the neglected corners of gardens 
and fields, where the seeds of weeds and grasses offer an abundance 
of food, are the favorite resort of the sparrows. The Song Sparrow 
may be distinguished from most of its relatives by its streaked 
breast, in the middle of which the spots generally form a conspicuous 
blotch, and by its long tail, which it constantly jerks as it flies. 
The Song Sparrow is very retiring, and when alarmed, slips into 
brush heaps or bushes, where it hides as skillfully as a mouse. 
