iSS;.] BiCKNKi.r. on the Staging oj Kirch. 1 47 



seems always ready with a few feeble song-notes for any day 

 that comes out sunshiny and mild in sudden change from harder 

 weather. 



Melospiza fasciata. Song Sparrow. 



This familiar Sparrow sings with greater constancy through 

 the seasons, and with less regard to adverse weather, than any 

 other of our song-birds. All through the hottest summer 

 weather it is songful, though the oppressive days of late August 

 seem sorely to try its spirit; but it recovers its cheerfulness with 

 advancing autumn, and is one of the few birds which, in that 

 season, repeats its full chorus of the spring. In every month of 

 winter, too, I have heard its song. Not that it sings uninterrupt- 

 edly throughout the year; for there is an intermission of singing 

 between November and February. But the general rule of 

 silence for these two months is not infrequently transgressed. 

 Its song is one of the first which the waking season brings ; 

 though it is usually a little antedated by that of the Bluebird. 

 Like the latter, the Song Sparrows are often in advance of the 

 season, and early in the spring I have found them singing cheer- 

 ily when the temperature was but little above zero (P.). and 

 even when snow was falling thickly. 



The earliest songs of which I have record date January 2^ and 

 27. Ordinarily first songs are not until the middle of Feb- 

 ruary, though it is not unusual to hear them after the first 

 week of the month. In severe seasons they may be deferred 

 until its latter days ; but 1 have never known silence to be kept 

 longer, however inclement the weather. But universal singing 

 with this species does not always proceed directly from the first 

 song ; here the weather has much influence. Thus, in the year 

 1S79, the first song was on February 7. but up to the end of the 

 month singing was intermittent and timorous only, and the 

 confident spring song was not voiced until March 5. But when 

 singing has become general, only the most adverse weather can 

 reduce the joyous birds to silence. When the first songs are 

 not until late in February, the impulse to sing is likely to 

 become pretty general in a single week. The earliest songs are 

 sometimes nothing more than feeble warblings without definite 

 beginning or ending, but with favorable weather they quickly 

 pass into the full-voiced aria of spring. 



