WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



uttering the while a quick, metallic chirp. Many 

 kinds of caterpillars he likewise devours, among 

 them clothes moths and the loathsome tent-cater- 

 pillar, that stretches its canopied webs among the 

 twigs of our orchard and shade trees, and drops 

 down upon our heads in all its ugly nastiness; 

 also ants, earthworms, and young beetles. 



When the insects mature, and betake themselves 

 beyond his easy reach, small fruits still remain; 

 and, as these gradually disappear, he gives him- 

 self up more and more to a strictly graminivorous 

 diet, breaking open the seed-vessels stored up by 

 the wilderness of weeds growing in every field 

 which the farmer has let " run to waste " for him- 

 self, but has thus cultivated the more for the spar- 

 rows. There is always enough of this material, 

 either in the unbroken pods or fallen to the ground, 

 to last through the winter such adventurous birds 

 as brave our snows, screening themselves from the 

 chilling blast in recesses of the dense thickets, or 

 taking shelter under piles of logs and brush. 



During the latter part of April, in ordinary sea- 

 sons, the song-sparrow finds himself married, and 

 he and his wife begin to construct their home. The 

 site chosen is the green bank of some meadow 

 brook, a tussock beside a country road, a hollow 



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