THE WESTERN VESPER SPARROW. 107 
rootlets, and horse-hair. Eggs: 4 or 5, pinkish-, grayish-, or bluish-white, speckled, 
spotted and occasionally scrawled with reddish-brown. Ay. size, .82 x .60 
(20.8x15.2). Season: first week in May, second week in June; two broods. 
General Range.—Western United States (except Pacific coast district) and 
Canada north to Saskatchewan east to Manitoba, the Dakotas (midway), western 
Nebraska, etc. ; breeding from the highlands of Arizona and New Mexico north- 
ward; in winter from southern California east to Texas and south to southern 
Mexico. 
Range in Washington.—East-side, sparingly distributed in all open situa- 
tions. 
Migrations.—S pring: Yakima Co. March 15, 1900; Chelan Co. March 31, 
18096. 
Authorities——Dawson, Auk, XIV. April 1897, p. 178. Sr. D2. Sst. Ss?. J. 
Specimens.—P. Prov. C. 
A SOBER garb cannot conceal the quality of the wearer, even tho 
Quaker gray be made to cover alike saint and sinner. Plainness of dress, 
therefore, is a fault to be readily forgiven, even in a bird, if it be accompanied 
by a voice of sweet sincerity and a manner of self-forgetfulness. In a family 
where a modest appearance is no reproach, but a warrant to health and long 
life, the Vesper Sparrow is pre-eminent for modesty. You are not aware of 
his presence until he disengages himself from the engulfing grays and browns 
of the stalk-strewn ground or dusty roadside, and mounts a fence-post to 
rhyme the coming or the parting day. 
The arrival of Vesper Sparrow, late in March, may mark the supreme 
effort of that particular warm wave, but you are quite content to await the 
further travail of the season while you get acquainted with this amiable new- 
comer. Under the compulsion of the sun the bleary fields have been trying to 
muster a decent green to hide the ugliness of winter’s devastation. But where- 
fore? The air is lonely and the sage untenanted. The Meadowlarks, to be 
sure, have been romping about for several weeks and getting bolder every 
day; but they are roisterous fellows, drunk with air and mad with sunshine. 
The winter-sharpened ears wait hungrily for the poet of common day. The 
morning he comes a low sweet murmur of praise is heard on every side. You 
know it will ascend unceasingly thenceforth, and spring is different. 
Vesper Sparrow is the typical ground bird. He eats, runs, sleeps, and 
rears his family upon the ground; but to sing—ah, that is different !—nothing 
less than the tip of the highest sage-bush will do for that; a telegraph pole or 
wire is better; and a lone tree in a pasture is not to be despised for this one 
purpose. The males gather in spring to engage in decorous concerts of 
rivalry. The song consists of a variety of simple, pleasing notes, each uttered 
two or three times, and all strung together to the number of four or five. 
The characteristic introduction is a mellow whistled he-ho, a little softer in tone 
