114 Birds Every Child Should Know 



The field sparrow, as we have seen, prefers 

 neglected old fields overgrown with bushes, 

 but the vesper sparrow chooses more broad, 

 open, breezy, grassy country. When busy 

 picking up insects and seed on the ground, he 

 takes no time for singing, but keeps steadily at 

 work, unlike the vireos that sing between bites. 

 With him music is a momentous matter to 

 which he is quite willing to devote half an hour 

 at a time. He usually mounts to a fence rail 

 or a tree before beginning the repetitions of his 

 lovely, serene vesper which is most likely to 

 be heard about sunset, or at sunrise, if you are 

 not a sleepy-head. Like the rose-breasted 

 grosbeak, he has the delightful habit of singing 

 through the early hours of the summer night. 



ENGLISH SPARROW 



Is there a boy or girl in America who does not 

 already know this saucy, keen-witted little gamin 

 who thrives where other birds would starve; 

 who insists upon thrusting himself where he 

 is not wanted, not only in other bird^s houses, 

 but about the cornices, pillars, and shutters of 

 our own, where his noise and dirt drive good 

 housekeepers frantic ; who, without any weapons 

 but his boldness and impudence to fight with, 

 fears neither man nor beast, and who multi- 



