THE PERCHING BIRDS. 89 



be thankful that we are blessed with so many spar- 

 rows of so many kinds. 



Ridgway's Manual calls for ninety-two species, 

 and, of course, of varieties and geographical races 

 there is a goodly number. ' Of these, a very large 

 proportion are Eastern species, and their Western 

 representatives do not materially vary in the mat- 

 ter of habits. Of course difference of environment 

 causes some variation in habits, and different areas 

 that are much alike to our eyes have some subtle 

 peculiarities that affect the voices of the birds. More 

 than one bird that is common to New England and 

 the Middle States does not sing in the same way in 

 the two localities. Again, I have heard song-spar- 

 rows, thrushes, and the rose-breasted grosbeak sing- 

 ing in almost a monotonous way at the sea-shore, 

 when their songs were clear and far-reaching not 

 fifty miles away, but at a considerable elevation, and 

 this difference of atmosphere may be an all-impor- 

 tant matter. 



The leader of the sparrow host is the Evening 

 Grosbeak, which has its home in the far northwest, 

 where in comparative solitude the males warble in a 

 manner suggestive of the beginning of a robin's 

 song, which is saying but little in way of praise, the 

 entire song of the robin not being remarkable as a 

 whole, and the beginning really the poorer end of it. 



Occasionally this far-off bird wanders eastward, as 

 in the winter of 1889-90, when numbers entered the 

 New England States, and presumably were all killed 

 to prevent the possibility of their return or of their 

 remaining as residents. They were in Pennsylvania, 



