The Inspiring Sparrows. 33 



and it has always been so, — birds are found that are 

 stated as being at this season much farther south. 

 There is no real reason why these birds should not 

 stay in Jersey. It is just as warm. There is prac- 

 tically the same flora, the food-supply is abundant, 

 and eveiy other feature is at hand to make the 

 birds comfortable. There is nothing strange in the 

 fact that the vesper-sparrow is always here, nor that 

 the savanna sparrow lingers until after the holidays ; 

 it is no more strange, indeed, than that sea-side 

 birds should wander up the river-valley to the very 

 limits of tide-water ; for instance, the sharp-tailed 

 finch. 



Let us turn now from December to April, from 

 discussion to observation, and along some sunny 

 wood-road all barred and cross-barred by the 

 shadows of still leafless branches, listen for the in- 

 dustrious scratching of that beautiful finch or sparrow, 

 the chewink, among the dead leaves. We have in 

 this bird one of the most delightful phases of the 

 many-sided sparrow-life. It is something so differ- 

 ent, in fact, from the ways of the "chippy" or song- 

 sparrow that the bird is called by most people the 

 " swamp-robin," and not one in a thousand knows that 

 the bird is a finch and not allied in any way to the 

 thrushes. The chewink is both resident and migratory, 

 yet he is essentially a summer bird. It is when all 

 that makes for greatest activity is at high-water mark 

 that the chewink sings his loudest strains and chirps 

 till the woods ring with his earnestness, and he flashes 

 and flits through the lush green growths as if the cares 



