THE SAGE SPARROW. 



"7 



TIIAXK God fur the saj4e-brush ! It is not merely tlial it clothes the 

 desert and makes its wastes less arid. Xo one needs to apologize for the 

 unclad open, or to shun it as the it were an unclean thing. Only little souls 

 do this, — those who, being used to small spaces, miss the support of crowding 

 elbows, and are frightened into peevish complaint when asked to stand alone. 

 To the manly spirit there is exultation in mere space. The ground were 

 enough, the mere Expanse, with the ever-matching blue of the hopeful sky. 

 but when to this is added the homely \-erdure of the untilled ground, the cup 

 of joy is filled. One snatches at the sage as tho it were the symbol of all the 

 wild openness, and buries his nostrils in its pungent branches to compass at 

 a whifl" this realm of unpent gladness. Prosy? ^Monotonous? Faugh! 

 Back to the city with _\'ou ! You are not fit for the wilderness unless you 

 love its \ erv wi >rm- 

 wood. 



The sage has interest 

 or not, to be sure, ac- 

 cording to the level 

 fro m which it is 

 \- i e w e d . Regarded 

 fr(.im the supercilious 

 level of the man-on- 

 horseback, it is a mere 

 hindrance to the pur- 

 suit of the erring steer. 

 The man a- foot has 

 some dim perception of 

 its beauties, but if his 

 errand is a long one he, 

 too, wearies of his de- 

 vious course. Those 

 who are best of all .n the t«t. 



fitted to appreciate its infinite variety of gnarled branch and velvet leaf, and 

 to revel in its small mysteries, are simple folk, — rabbits, lizards, and a few 

 birds who have chosen it for their life portion. Of these, some look up to it 

 as to the trees of an ancient forest and are lost in its maz^ : but of those who 

 know it from the ground up, none is more loyal than the Sage Sparrow. 

 Whether he gathers a breakfast, strewn upon the ground, among the red, 

 white, and blue, of storkbill, chickweed, and fairy-mint, or whether he explores 

 the crevices of the twisted sage itself for its store of shrinking beetles, his 

 soul is filled with a vast content. 



Here in the springtime he soon gets full enough for utterance, and mounts 

 the tDjimost sprig of a sage bush to voice his thanks. In general character 



Douglas County. Photo by II'. Leon Dau 



S.\GE SP.ARROW ON .N'EST. 



BIRD \\.\S .NOT THE VICTIM OF THE MISFORTUNE MENTIONED 



