CHIPPY. 63 
_ brown and black, his wings are crossed by narrow 
whitish bars, and underneath he is a pure light 
ash color. 
Notice the bill chippy has to crack seeds with. 
It is the short, thick, conical bill of the family, 
and contrasts not only with the long slender bills 
of the worm-eating robin and bluebird in No. 
14, but with those of the oriole, crow blackbird, 
and meadow-lark in No. 3. The bobolink shows 
the nearness of No. 3 and 4 in his partly conical 
bill, and also in flight, though, by coloring, he is 
more closely related to the crow in No. 2. It is 
hardly necessary to suggest the differences that 
separate chippy from the chimney swift, the ruffed 
grouse, the humming-bird, the cuckoo, and the . 
ant-eating yellow hammer. 
Of our common sparrows chippy alone has no 
real song, but he trills away monotonously, — 
by the hour, you are tempted to think, — with 
cheerful perseverance that would grace a better 
eause. He is called “ hair-bird”’ because he lines 
his nest with horse or cow hair, and when you 
think of the close observation and industry it takes 
to find this hair you will recognize not only the 
power of inherited habit but the fitness of the 
name hair-bird. 
Last summer a chipping sparrow built in a jas- 
mine bush in the crotch of a neighbor’s piazza. 
When the little mother was startled by intruders 
she would dart into the bush, crouch down, flatten 
