296 RIVERBY 



bird songs of May heard afield it is like a tiny, 

 obscure plant amid tall, rank growths. The bird 

 affords a capital subject for the country boy, or town 

 boy, either, when he goes to the country, to ex- 

 ercise his powers of observation upon. If he finds 

 this bird he will find a good many other interesting 

 things. He may find the savanna sparrow also, 

 which closely resembles the bird he is looking for. 

 It is a trifle larger, has more bay about the wings, 

 and is more common toward the coast. Its yellow 

 markings are nearly the same. A relative of both 

 these birds is called Henslow's sparrow. Like the 

 savanna sparrow, it is fonder of marshy land than 

 the yellow-wing, and its song, though of the sim- 

 plest, is much louder. It has an olive-green head 

 and spotted breast. 



I never see the yellow-wing without being re- 

 minded of a miniature meadowlark. Its short tail, 

 its round wings, its long and strong legs and feet, 

 its short beak, its mottled coat, the touch of yellow, 

 as if he had just rubbed against a newly-opened dan- 

 delion, but in this case on the wings instead of on 

 the breast, the quality of its voice, and its general 

 shape and habits, all suggest a tiny edition of this 

 large emphatic walker of our meadows. 



The Song of this little sparrow is like the words 

 "chick, chick-a-su-su, " uttered with a peculiar buzz- 

 ing sound. Its nest is placed upon the ground in 

 the open field, with four or five speckled eggs. The 

 eggs are rounder and their ground color whiter than 

 the eggs of other sparrows. 



