PERCHING BIRDS 



540. VESPER SPARROW. Pocecetes 

 gramineus gramineus. 



Range. Eastern United States, breeding from 

 Virginia and Missouri north to Manitoba and 

 New Brunswick; winters in the southern half 

 of the United States. 



A streaked grayish, buffy 

 and white bird distinguished 

 by its chestnut shoulders and 

 white outer tail feathers. 

 They are abundant birds in 

 eastern fields where their 

 loud piping whistle is known 

 to many frequenters of weedy 

 pastures. They build on the ground, either 

 in grassy or cultivated fields, lining the hollow 

 scantily with grasses. Their four or five eggs 

 are usually laid in May or June; they are dull 

 whitish, blotched and splashed with light 

 brown and lavender tints; size .80 x .60. 



Whitish 



McCown's Long-spur 



540a. WESTERN VESPER SPARROW. Pocecetes gramineus confinis. 



Range. This paler variety is found in North America west of the Plains and 

 south of Saskatchewan. 



Its nesting habits are like those of the preceding and the eggs are indistin- 

 guishable. 



5 4 Ob. OREGON VESPER SPARROW. Pooecetes gramineus affinis. 



A browner variety found on the coast of Oregon and northern California. 



Its nesting habits are like those of the eastern bird and the eggs similar but 

 averaging a trifle smaller. 



SPARROW. I asser 



1 



Vesper Sparrow 



domesticus. 



These birds, which were imported from 

 Europe, have increased so rapidly that they 

 have overrun the cities and villages of the coun- 

 try and are doing inestimable damage both by 

 driving out native insect 

 eating birds and by their 

 own destructiveness. -They 

 nest in all sorts of places 

 but preferably behind 

 blinds, where their un- 

 sightly masses of straw- 

 protrude from between the 

 slats, and their droppings besmirch the build- 

 ings below; they breed at all seasons of the 

 year, eggs having often been found in January, 

 with several feet of snow on the ground and 

 the mercury below zero. The eggs number from 

 four to eight in a set and from four to eight 

 sets a season; the eggs are whitish, spotted 

 and blotched with shades of gray and black. 

 Size .88 x .60. 



335 



White 



