WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



VIII 



THE SOKG-SPARROW 



HE American song-sparrow is a 

 peculiar lover of old fields where 

 Nature is fast reasserting herself 

 after the temporary Tule of man. 

 The tumble-down, lichen-patch- 

 ed stone fences ; the gray cattle- 

 paths diverging from the muddy 

 bar-way to those parts of the 

 pasture where the grass is sweet- 

 est ; the weedy banks of the slug- 

 gish brook winding indolently 

 among mossy bowlders and tan- 

 gled thickets and patches of fra- 

 grant herbage — are all congenial 

 to it, and are its chosen resort. 

 Yet it is so common throughout 

 most of the United States that 

 144 



