72 A SPARROW QUARTETTE. 



heart and caused him to beat a hasty retreat, leav- 

 ing chippy in possession of the field. It was 

 laughable, my friend says, to watch the little fellow 

 plume himself on his victory, looking up at the 

 spectator of the melee with a mute appeal for 

 applause. 



Chippy has a little sylvan cousin to whom we 

 must next pay our respects. The two birds may 

 be easily confounded by the inaccurate observer, 

 but the careful one will soon detect the marks of 

 difference. While the crown of the bush-sparrow 

 is of a chestnut cast, like that of the chippy, there 

 is no black on the forehead or through the eye, 

 while the whitish superciliary bands are not so 

 definitely marked, but seem to be merged imper- 

 ceptibly into the brown above. The bush-sparrow 

 is also of a more reddish cast than his little relative, 

 and his bill is pale reddish instead of black. 



Mr. Burroughs calls this bird the wood or bush- 

 sparrow, although it is called the field-spairow in 

 all the ornithological manuals with wliich I am 

 acquainted, and it is well to remember this differ- 

 ence in nomenclature when the student begins the 

 work of identification. 



The song of this little wood nymph is a fine, pen- 

 sv.e strain, very sweet and pleasing, beginning with 



