A BIRD MEDLEY — 85 
spring on their way to Canada and beyond, there is 
none I behold with so much pleasure as the white- 
erowned sparrow. I have an eye out for him all 
through April and the first week in May. He is 
the rarest and most beautiful of the sparrow kind. 
He is crowned, as some hero or victor in the games. 
He is usually in company with his congener, the 
white-throated sparrow, but seldom more than in 
the proportion of one to twenty of the latter. Con- 
trasted with this bird, he looks like its more for- 
tunate brother, upon whom some special distinc- 
tion has been conferred, and who is, from the egg, 
of finer make and quality. His sparrow color of 
ashen gray and brown is very clear and bright, and 
his form graceful. His whole expression, however, 
culminates in a singular manner in hiscrown. The 
various tints of the bird are brought to a focus here 
and intensified, the lighter ones becoming white, 
and the deeper ones nearly black. There is the 
suggestion of a crest, also, from a habit the bird has 
of slightly elevating this part of its plumage, as if 
to make more conspicuous its pretty markings. 
They are great scratchers, and will often remain 
several minutes scratching in one place, like a hen, 
Yet, unlike the hen and like all hoppers, they scratch 
with both feet at once, which is by no means the 
best way to scratch. 
The white-throats often sing during their sojourn- 
ing in both fall and spring; but only on one oc- 
casion have I ever heard any part of the song of 
the white-crowned, and that proceeded from what I 
