,,.'.., ' Moon!., The F02 Sparrow at a Song let 177 



THE FOX SPARROW AS A SONGSTER. 



Bl R0BER1 nioMAs MOORE. 



During those brief March days, when he slips through our 

 thickel i, the Fox Sparrow sings so sweetly that we conclude lie is 

 doing his best. Not until we have heard liis finished longs leaping 

 out of the Canadian woodlands and lounding n riot of pure joy, 

 b they are to ted from liill to hill, do we realize how much inju itice 

 we have done him. For those migrant strain , even at their best, 

 are men' beginnings, the timid tuning up of the vocal instrument i 

 for the great ong fesl i<> come. The fad is the migrant songs, 

 which I have heard, lack nearly every quality which makes > Im- 

 finished product the great song it is. Loud as the former seem, 

 their power i^ as nothing compared to that which propels the 

 northern challenge, even the tone quality is defective, lacking in 

 full depth and roundness, and mo it vital of all the dancing rhythm 

 with its powerful central accents, which gives 1 1 j * - northern songs 

 the expression of irrepressible joy, is entirely absent. To appreciate 

 i In , one urn il go ;i i far a I h<- Magdalen [slands in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, for the <• islands mark the southern limit of nesting 



Fox Sparrows. 



Willi this purpose in view, I found myself on June 15, 1911, at 

 Pictou, X. S., ready to take the biweekly steamer across the eighty 

 miles of gulf waters. Much t<> my surprise neither there nor in 

 Souris, Prince Edward Is , did I happen on a single individual of 

 this pedes, yet the following day in the Magdalens, only sixty 

 miles farther north, I found it one of the most common birds, 

 e ceeded in abundance only by the Savannah Sparrow and the 

 Blackpoll Warbler. From June 16 until July 5, with the exception 

 of i- <l;i;. i on Bird flock, several hour, of each twenty-four were 



spent vvith the Fox Sparrow and some days were given up to him 



entirely. During this period we went to various portions of the 

 islands from East Poinl t<» Grindstone, n distance of forty miles 

 and more, and the record, secured are therefore representative. 

 Bach new region brought to light some variations, but thee were 

 slight, ih<- main features remaining unchanged Wherever we 



