BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 95 



to be a shy bird, I have never seen him in our gardens. 

 The inmates of solitary cottages alone are privileged to 

 hear his notes from their windows. He loves the plains 

 and the hillsides which are half covered with a primitive 

 growth of young pines, junipers, cornels, and whortleberry- 

 bushes, and lives upon the seeds of grasses and wild let- 

 tuce, with occasional repasts of insects and fruits. His 

 notes are mellow and plaintive, and, though often pro- 

 longed to a considerable length, seldom consist of more 

 than one strain. He begins slowly and emphatically, as 

 if repeating the syllable de, de, de, de, any number of 

 times, increasing in rapidity, and at the same time sliding 

 upward, by almost imperceptible gradations, about one or 

 two tones on the musical scale. 



WOOD-SPARROW'S SONG. 



de de de de de de de de de 



In the latter part of June, when this bird is most mu- 

 sical, he occasionally varies his song, by uttering a few 

 chirps after the first strain, like the Canary, then recom- 

 mencing it, and repeating it thus perhaps three or four 

 times. I once heard a Canary that repeated this reit- 

 erated song of the Wood-Sparrow, and it seemed to me to 

 surpass any notes I had ever heard before from this sweet 

 little domesticated songster. 



THE GROUND-ROBIN OR CHEWINK. 



While listening to the notes of the Wood-Sparrow, we 

 are constantly saluted by the agreeable, though less musi- 

 cal, notes of the Ground-Eobin, an amusing little bird 

 that confines himself chiefly to the edges of woods. This 

 bird is elegantly spotted with white, red, and black, the 



