A SPARROW QUARTETTE. * 75 



coverts. He makes his home in upland pasture- 

 fields, where he sings his matins and vespers and 

 mid-day madrigals, often in company with the 

 meadow-larks, bobolinks, and black-throated bunt- 

 ings. I should represent the song thus : K-e-o-o-o, 

 k-e-e-e, ke-ke-ke ! The second syllable pitched very 

 high and swelling into a crescendo with a sort 

 of swinging movement. I cannot describe the 

 pleasure I have derived during the spring and 

 summer from the songs of this bird, which were 

 wafted to me every morning from the clover-field 

 beyond the commons, in the rear of my house ; 

 they were so sadly sweet and sweetly sad. 



Birds, like people, exercise some choice in their 

 habitats. Leaving the upland fields and making 

 our way to the meadow, the marsh, or the creek 

 bottom, we no longer find the grass-finch, but are 

 more than compensated by meeting another spar- 

 row, whose voice has more compass and whose 

 songs are more varied and sprightly, if not sweeter 

 in intonation. I am free to say that the song- 

 sparrow is my favorite of the household to which 

 he belongs, not only because of the richness of his 

 song, but also because of the constancy and fidelity 

 with which he pursues his vocation as a vocal 

 artist. " What's the use of having a profession if 



