262 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



him. His song is most noticeable after sundown, when other birds 

 are silent, for wliich reason he has been aptly called the Vesper 

 Sparrow. The farmer following his team from the field at dusk 

 catches his sweetest strain. His song is not so brisk and varied as 

 that of the Song Sparrow, being softer and wilder, sweeter and more 

 plaintive. Add the best parts of the lay of the latter to tbe sweet 

 vibrating chant of the Wood Sparrow {Spizella pusilla), and you 

 have the evening hymn of the Vesper-bird — the poet of the plain 

 unadorned pastures. Go to those broad, smooth, up-lying fields, 

 ■where the cattle and sheep are grazing, and sit down on one of the 

 warm, clean stones, and listen to this song. On every side, near 

 and remote, from out the short grass which the herds are cropping, 

 the strain rises. Two or three long, silver notes of rest and peace, 

 ending in some subdued trills or quavers, constitute each separate 

 song. Often you will catch only one of the bars, the breeze having 

 blown the minor part away. Such unambitious, unconscious 

 melody ! It is one of the most characteristic sounds in Nature. 

 The grass, the stones, the stubble, the furrow, the quiet herds, and 

 the warm twilight among the hills, are all subtilely expressed in 

 this song; this is what they are at least capable of," 



Genus CHONDESTES Swainson. 



Chondestes Swainson. Phil. Mag. i, 1827,435. Type, Chondestes strigatus S'W.,=Frm- 

 gilla grammaca Say. 



"Gen. Chab. Bill swollen; both outlines gently curved; the lower mandible as high 

 as the upper; the commissure angulated at the base, and then slightly sinuated. Lower 

 mandible rather narrower at the base than the length of the gonys; broader than the 

 upper. Tarsi moderate, about eaual to the middle toe; lateral toes equal and very short, 

 reaching but little beyond the middle o£ the penultimate joint of the middle toe, and 

 falling considerably short of the base of middle claw. Wings long, pointed, reaching 

 nearly to the middle of the tall; the tertials not longer than the secondaries; the first 

 quill shorter than the second and third, which are equal. The tall is moderately long, 

 considerably graduated, the feathers rather narrow, and elliptically rounded at the end. 



"Streaked on the back. Head with well defined large stripes. Beneath white, with a 

 pectoral spot. Only one species recognized." {Hist. N. Am. B.) 



Chondestes grammacus (Say). 



LAEK SPAEEOW. 



Popular synonyms. Lark Finch; Potato Bird ("Farmers about Saint Louis"; Coale). 



Fringilla grammaca SA.-!,liong'B Exp, i, 1823, 139,— NuiT. Man. i, 1832, 480.— AuD. Orn. 

 Biog. V. 1S39, 17, pi. 390, 



