IO2 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



and a half-dead plum-tree; the last remnants of an 

 old garden set apart for a few flowers and some beds 

 of herbs in the closing years of the last century. 

 Here the song-sparrows lived, and never seemed to 

 wander away from it. In April, when the robins 

 roused all sleepers at dawn, the sparrow was among 

 the first to respond, and while yet the sun was below 

 the horizon assured all the plain Quakers within 

 hearing that he was a good Pres-pres-pres-pres-pres- 

 by-te-rian. One needs the fresh eyes, quick ears, 

 and supple limbs of youth to rightly study birds. 

 Then I knew every song-sparrow on the farm, and 

 there was a good deal of difference among them. 

 Scarcely two sang quite alike, and yet there was that 

 family resemblance that made the song unmistakable. 

 In nesting, too, the birds differed, as many having 

 nests in low bushes as others did upon the ground. 

 The eggs varied so as to clutches, that in the 

 common mind it was held that there were "bush 

 chippies" and " ground chippies," for, curiously 

 enough, all the small birds, except the humming-bird, 

 whether warblers, flycatchers, or the small thrushes, 

 were called by that one word " chippy." It was the 

 extent of the average man's ornithological knowledge, 

 beyond swallows and the game-birds. 



Not very unlike the song-sparrow is another species 

 that does not come even into our old-fashioned gar- 

 dens, but lives in just such places as we are apt to 

 keep clear of, as the swamps, marshes, and low river- 

 banks that are covered with bushes, and for this 

 reason it is known, when known at all, as the Swamp- 

 sparrow. They are not such sprightly musicians as 



