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THE WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW. 
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NOT all birds are fitly named, even in the “immutable Latin,” but this 
one has a very accurate title in Spizella socialis arizone*, which we may freely 
translate as the friendly little sparrow of the desert. An obscure little fellow 
he is to eye, a skit done in faded browns, with a chestnut crown which still 
does not differentiate the owner from a withered corymb in his native sage. 
Of the desert he is, for there is no sage-brush wilderness too dreary to boast 
the presence of at least a few Chipping Sparrows. And friendly he is, be- 
yond question, for there are few dooryards in the eastern part of the State 
where this bird is not a trustful visitor; and his presence in western Wash- 
ington is nearly coextensive with that of man. For altho the Chipping 
Sparrow now abounds in the prairie region of Pierce and adjacent counties, 
it is instructive to note that its plumage gives no evidence of resaturation, 
or of departure from the 
bleached type, as would be 
the case if it belonged to one 
of the really ‘“‘old families” 
of Puget Sound 
Whatever the weather, 
Chippy returns to us about 
the 12th day of April, posts 
himself on the tip of a fir 
branch, like a brave little 
Christmas candle, and pro- 
ceeds to sputter, in the same 
part. Of all homely sounds 
the monotonous trill of the 
Western Chipping Sparrow 
is the most homely,—and 
the most easily forgivable. 
As music it scarcely ranks 
above the rattle of cas- 
Fe a oe OR Phoid bythe turner) LOU DEL ne little singer 
JUST ARRIVED. pours out his soul full earn- 
WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW, ADULT MALE. estly, and his ardor often 
leads him to sustained effort thruout the sultry hours when more brilliant 
vocalists are sulking in the shade; and for this we come to prize his homely 
ditty like the sound of plashing waters. 
Two Chipping Sparrow songs heard near Tacoma deserve special 
mention. One likened itself in our ears to a tool being ground on a smal 
emery wheel. The wheel has a rough place on its periphery which strikes 
a. So called for decades, but now lost to us thru the latest caprice of nomenclature. Varium et 
mutabile semper A. O. U. Check-List. 
