THE VESPER SPARROW. 55 
presence until he disengages himself from the engulfing grays of the stalk- 
strewn ground or dusty roadside and mounts a fence-rail to rhyme the coming 
or the parting day. 
The arrival of Vesper Sparrow in middle early spring 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 newcomer. Under the compulsion of sun and rain the sodden fields 
have been trying to muster a decent green to hide the ugliness of winter’s 
devastation. But wherefore! The air is lonely and the fence rows untenanted. 
The Meadow Larks, to be sure, have been romping about for several weeks 
Taken near Oberlin Photo by the Author. 
NEST AND EGGS OF VESPER SPARROW. 
and getting bolder every day, but they are boistrous 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 !— 
