172 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
interest in the genus Homo seems to be confined 
to the people who pass along the road. These 
appear to fascinate him, and it is always with re- 
luctance that he flies away before them. A grass 
finch he certainly is. He nests in the grass, hops 
about in the grass, lives upon seeds he finds in the 
grass, and rarely gets much farther away than a 
roadside fence, or a tree that is surrounded by 
erass. 
LV. 
TREE SPARROW. 
THE tree sparrows look much like their cousin 
chippy, but have something of the free mountain 
air and pine-tree atmosphere about them that the 
domestic chippy lacks. 
I find them in spring and fall along the edge of 
the woods, or in the fields, eating grass seed; and 
a flock of them spent last April with us, sing- 
ing with the fox sparrows in the evergreens, and 
coming about the house in the most friendly man- 
ner. Indeed the lordly little creatures quite took 
possession of the corn boxes in front of the dining- 
room window, and drove off the juncos with a sad 
show of temper. I forgave them, however, for I 
had a capital chance to observe them while they 
were eating the buckwheat. 
Chippy, you know, has a way of crouching close 
to the ground. The tree sparrows, on the con- 
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