72 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
spring —in fact, many remain through the winter as far 
north even as Boston and Lake Erie. It is thought by 
ornithologists, however, that the winter song-sparrows are 
not the same individuals that were with us in summer, and 
which have gone southward, but are inhabitants of more 
northern latitudes, that have come down with the snow- 
birds; and it is said that these are far hardier birds, better 
and more versatile musicians. 
During the winter the song-sparrow remains, quiet and 
busy, along the edges of the woods on warm hill-sides in 
company with the spotted woodpeckers and snow-birds, or 
associates with the fowls in the barn-yard for a share of the 
housewife’s bounty. But as the March snow melts, and the 
sun sends genial warmth to awaken the buds, he mounts 
the topmost twigs of the brush pile whose labyrinths he has 
spent the winter in exploring, and pours forth a rapturous 
welcome to the couriers of summer. Then through all the 
spring days, whether they be shady or sunny, from early 
morn till long after sunset, are heard the sweet and cheery 
cadences of his song, trilled out over and over again like a 
canary’s. He starts off with a few low rattling notes, makes 
a quick leap to a high strain, ascends through many a melo- 
dious variation to the key-note, and suddenly stops, leaving 
his song to sing itself through ia your brain. To amplify 
