VESPER SPARROW. 
Vesper This Sparrow is sometimes called the 
Sparrow Grass Finch from its habit of spending 
Poecetes 
oe bias the greater part of its time in the fields 
L. 6.10 inches foraging for seeds. Its coloring is not 
Aprilioth,or very unlike that of the Scng Sparrow, 
allthe year = though it is somewhat grayer, and _ its 
distinguishing mark is the white tail feathers which the 
other bird does not possess. Upper parts gray-brown 
similar to that of the weathered fence rail; considerable 
streakiness in ochre and black modifies this color; wings 
sepia brown with two inconspicuous white bars; the 
shoulders are a bright chestnut brown; tail sepia brown 
with the outer feathers on either side nearly all white, 
the next pair with more or less white; breast and sides 
streaked with ochre and black; under parts dull white. 
Female similarly colored. Nest of grasses and rootlets, 
lined with finer grass and hair; it is built upon the 
ground. Egg, pinkish white speckled with chestnut o1 
umber brown; it is sometimes bluish white evenly and 
thickly speckled. The range of the bird is throughout 
eastern North America with the western limit at the 
Plains. It winters along the coast from southern New 
Jersey southward, Its chief food is the seed of various 
weeds, etc. Like the Snow Bunting it is essentially a 
ground bird. 
The Vesper Sparrow is a splendid singer chiefly for 
the reason that he seems to consider song a serious piece 
of business which must not be interrupted by any of the 
other duties of life. He will never be found feeding 
and singing at the same time; the Red-eyed Vireo and 
the Oriole do that sort of thing habitually; both birds 
have a fashion of sandwiching their songs between tid- 
bits of grubs and caterpillars. But not so with the 
Vesper Sparrow, for when he sings he selects a high 
perch (in Campton his favorite place is the ridge-pole of 
the bowling alley which belongs to the hotel near my 
cottage), and begins a season of song which is likely to 
last without interruption for nearly half an hour! A great 
deal is written about the purity and beauty of this Spar- 
row’s song, but it is a very simple matter to demonstrate 
the fact that it does not compare with the remarkable . 
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