BIRDS OF THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. 13 



His haunts are fields half cultivated and bordered with 

 wild shrubbery. He is somewhat more timid than the 

 Hair-Bird, that comes close up to our doorsteps to find 

 the crumbs that are swept from our tables. Though his 

 voice is constantly heard in the garden and orchard, he 

 selects a retired spot for his nest, preferring not to trust 

 his progeny to the doubtful mercy of the lords of crea- 

 tion. In some secure retreat, under a tussock of moss or 

 a tuft of low shrubbery, the female sits upon her nest 

 of soft dry grass, containing four or five eggs of a green- 

 ish-white surface covered with brownish specks. Begin- 

 ning in April, she rears two and often three broods during 

 the season, and her mate prolongs his notes until the last 

 brood has flown from the nest. 



The notes of the Song-Sparrow would not entitle him 

 to rank with our principal singing- birds, were it not for 

 the remarkable variations in his song, in which I think 

 he is equalled by no other bird. Of these variations 

 there are -six or seven that may be distinctly recognized, 

 differing enough to be considered separate tunes, but they 

 are all based upon the same theme. The bird does not 

 warble these in regular succession. It is in the habit of 

 repeating one of them several times, then leaves it and 

 repeats another in a similar manner. Mr. Charles S. 

 Paine, of East Eandolph, Massachusetts, was, I believe, 

 the first to observe this habit of the Song-Sparrow. He 

 took note, on one occasion, of the number of times a par- 

 ticular bird sang each of the tunes. As he had numbered 

 them, the bird sang No. 1, 21 times ; No. 2, 36 times ; 

 No. 3, 23 times ; No. 4, 19 times ; No. 5, 21 times ; No. 

 6, 32 times ; No. 7, 18 times. He made the same ex- 

 periment with a dozen different individuals ; and was 

 confident from these trials that each male has his seven 

 songs, or variations of the theme, and they are all equally 

 irregular in the order of singing them. 



