'.?« 



THE XUTTALL SP.\R1« »1A 



a friend but slioiild certainly ridicule in 

 a stranijer. We are Ininihled in view of 

 the vi>cal limitations of this hird when 

 we recall that the voice of the White- 

 crowned Sparrow (Z. Icucophrys ) , oi 

 which ours is a local race, is noted for 

 its sweet, pure (|uality. Surely our bird 

 has caught a bad cold. 



In sclectinj( a nestinjj site, the N'uttall 

 displays a marked rlififercnce of taste 

 from the Rusty Sonjj Sparrow, in that 

 it selects a dry situation. The first nest, 

 prepared durin}.^ the third week in April, 

 is almost invariably built ujion the 

 ground. A slight hollow is scratched at 

 the base of a bush or sapling, and a 

 rather pretentious structure of bark stri|)s, 

 dried grasses and rt«itlcts is reared, with 

 a lining of fine grass and lif)rse-hair. A 

 nest found on Flat-to]) was set in high 

 grass at the foot of a tiny oak sa|)ling, 

 and was comjiosed externally of dried 

 yarrow leaves with a few coarse grasses: 

 internally of fine coiled grass of a ver\ 

 light color, su|)plemented by four or five 

 white gull feathers. The eggs, four or 

 five in iniml)er. are of a handsome light 

 green or bluish green shade, and are heavily dotted, spotted, or blotched 

 with reddish brown. 



A second set is prepared a nuMith or so later than the first, and occa- 

 sionally a third. Second nests are built, as likely as not. in bushes or trees; 

 .111(1 Mr. rji>wles has taken them as high as twenty-five feet from the ground. 

 Young birds lack the parti-colored head-strijies of the adult, altho the 

 pattern is sketched in browns; and they are liest identified by the UTifailing 

 solicitude of the parents, which atten<ls their every movement. They are 

 rather bumptious little creatures for all; a company of them romping alxiut 

 a pasture fence brings a wholesome recollection of school-boy days, and there 

 ;irc girls among them. too. for my! how they giggle! 



Taken in ScallU. riiolo by llu- .lull 



FlCXr.\I.E .NLTT.MJ. Sf.VKKOW 



