no Birds Every Child Should Know 



whistle well enough to imitate it. Few birds 

 can rival the musical ecstasy. 



Artlessly self-confident, not at all bashful, 

 the song sparrow mounts to a conspicuous 

 perch when he sings, rather than let his efforts 

 be muffled by foliage. Don't mistake him for 

 an English sparrow; notice his distinguishing 

 marks: the fine dark streaks on his light breast 

 tend to form a larger blotch in the centre. You 

 see him singing on the extended branch of some 

 low tree, on the topmost twig of a bush, on 

 a fence, or a piazza railing from which he dives 

 downward into the grass, or flies straight along 

 into the bushes, his tail working like a pump 

 handle as if to help his flight. Very rarely he 

 flies upward. Diving into a bush is one of his 

 specialties. He best likes to live in regions 

 near water. 



The song sparrows that come almost every 

 day in the year among many other birds to my 

 piazza roof for waste canary seed and such 

 delicacies, show refreshing spirit in driving 

 off the English sparrows who, let it be recorded, 

 can get not a morsel until the song sparrows are 

 abundantly satisfied. One of the latter is quite 

 able to keep off half a dozen of his English 

 cousins. How does he do it? Not by his 

 superior size, for the measurements of both 

 birds show that they are about the same length 

 although the song sparrow's slightly longer and 



