MELOSPIZA PALUSTRIS : SWAMP SPARROW. 255 



known, so closely does it hug the dense covert which 

 it instinctively chooses as a screen from the danger of 

 notoriety. It seldom ventures so far from its retreat 

 that a hurried flight of a few seconds will not enable it 

 to regain the thicket, and no oftener climbs the bushes 

 to any considerable height from the ground. More- 

 over, such cover as the bird prefers is that growing in 

 greatest profusion in swampy or other wet places, ac- 

 cess to which is doubly difficult from the treacherous 

 yielding of the ground and the sturdy resistance of the 

 mantling vegetation. If, however, we overcome such 

 obstacles, and penetrate such recesses, we may be 

 pretty sure to see the Swamp Sparrow in the compar- 

 atively free spaces beneath the woven canopy of foli- 

 age, fluttering in the shade, threading slyly among 

 the briers, running nimbly over the ground, or even 

 wading about in tiny pools. The nest will be found in 

 a grassy tussock or low bush, such as a Song Spar- 

 row might select, and is of much the same construction 

 and general appearance ; nor can the eggs be distin- 

 guished with any certainty, though perhaps averaging 

 a trifle smaller. It is, therefore, needless to give any 

 elaborate description. The bird is prompt in nesting, 

 making ready for the eggs by the third week in May,, 

 and often producing another set some six weeks later. 

 The modest little bird is a good musician, as might be 

 supposed from his kinship with the sympathetic " nielo- 

 dia,"'' and well deserves the compliments paid by Mr. 

 Minot to the " sweet, clear trill " of spring-time, and 

 warbling notes of the falling season. "I remember to 

 have seen one at evening," he adds, "in the eccentric 

 expression of his passion during the season of love, 

 dart from a thicket, mount in the air, and take a rapid, 



