FKINGILLID^ — THE FINCHES. 21 



The tide of returning emigration begins to set southward early in October. 

 Collecting in small loose flocks, probably all of each group members of the 

 same family, they slowly move towards the south. As one set passes on, 

 another succeeds, until the latter part of November, when we no longer meet 

 with flocks, but solitary individuals or groups of two or three. These are 

 usually a larger and stouter race, and almost suggest a different species. 

 They are often in song even into December. They apparently do not go 

 far, and are the first to return. In early March they are in full song, and 

 their notes seem louder, clearer, and more vibratory than those that come to 

 us and remain to breed. 



The Song Sparrow, as its name implies, is one of our most noted and con- 

 spicuous singers. It. is at once our earliest and our latest, as also our 

 most constant musician. Its song is somewhat brief, but is repeated at short 

 intervals, almost throughout the days of spring and early summer. It some- 

 what resembles the opening notes of the Canary, and though less resonant 

 and powerful, much surpasses them in sweetness and expression. Plain and 

 homely as this bird is in its outward garb, its sweet song and its gentle con- 

 fiding manners render it a welcome visitor to every garden, and around every 

 rural home wherein such attractions can be appreciated. Whenever these 

 birds are kindly treated they readily make friends, and are attracted to our 

 doorsteps for the welcome crumbs that are thrown to them ; and they will 

 return, year after year, to the same locality, whenever thus encouraged. 



The song of this Sparrow varies in difierent individuals, and often changes, 

 in the same bird, in different parts of the year. It is even stated by an 

 observing naturalist — Mr. Charles S. Paine, of Ptandolph, Vt. — that he has 

 known the same bird to sing, in succession, nine entirely different sets of 

 notes, usually uttering them one after the other, in the same order. This was 

 noticed not merely onoe or during one season, but through three successive 

 summers. The same bird returned each season to his grounds, and came 

 each time provided with the same variety of airs. 



Mr. Nuttall, who dwells witli much force upon the beauty and earnestness 

 of expression of the song of this species, has also noticed and remarked 

 upon the power of individuals to vary their song, from time to time, wdth 

 very agreeable effect, but no one has recorded so remarkable an instance as 

 that thus carefully noted by Mr. Paine. 



These birds are found in almost any cultivated locality where the grounds 

 are sufficiently open. They prefer the edges of open fields, and those of 

 meadows and low grounds, but are rarely found in woods or in thick bushes, 

 except near their outer edges. They nest naturally on the ground, and in such 

 situations a large majority build their nests. These are usually the younger 

 birds. A portion, almost always birds of several summers, probably taught 

 by sad experiences of the insecurity of the ground, build in bushes. A pair 

 which had a nest in an adjoining field had been robbed, by a cat, of their 

 young when just about to fly. After much lamentation, and an interval of a 



