THE WESTERN VESPER SPARROW. 107 



rootlets, and horse-hair. Eggs: 4 or 5, pinkish-, grayish-, or bhiish-white, speckled, 

 spotted and occasionally scrawled with reddish-brown. Av. size, .82 x .60 

 ( 20.8.x iv2). 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 sdnthern California cast to Texas and south to southern 

 Mexico. 



Range in Washington. — Ivist-side, sparingly distributed in all open situa- 

 tions. 



Migrations. — Spy'uui: Yakima Co. March 15, 1900; Chelan Co. March 31, 

 1896. 



Authorities. — Dawson, Auk, Nl\ . April 1897, p. 178. Sr. D-. Ss". Ss^ J. 



Specimens. — P. Prov. C. 



.\ SOBER garl) cannot cunceal the quality of the wearer, even tho 

 Quaker gray be made to cover alike saint and sinner. Plainness of dress, 

 liierefore, 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 

 efifort 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 comimlsion of the sun the bleary fields have been trying to 

 muster a decent green to Iiide 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 alx^ut for several weeks and getting bolder every 

 dav; 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. lie eats, runs, sleejis. and 

 rears his family upon the ground: but to sing — ah. that indifferent! — 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 intmduction is a mellow whistled hc-ho. a little softer in tone 



