24 Bird Comrades 



little alto strain all the while, as if his life depended 

 upon it. He is one of the comparatively few birds who 

 is lavish of his song in migration. 



Unlike the familiar chippie, he does not usually find 

 a perch in plain sight, from which to rehearse his song, 

 but keeps himself well hidden in the bushes or trees, 

 darting into a hiding place as soon as he thinks himself 

 discovered. The shy little imp prefers to put a screen 

 of foliage or twigs between himself and the observer. 

 Might his motto be, " Little birds should be heard and 

 not seen" ? I had quite a time making sure of him, but, 

 as a pleasant compensation, when his identity was once 

 settled, I could not well have mistaken him for another 

 species, for he is a bird of real distinction. 



My study of the clay-colored sparrows was restricted 

 to their habits in migration, at which time they move 

 about in more or less compact little flocks, gathering 

 seeds and chanting their monotonous trills. While I 

 first found these sparrows near Peabody, they were also 

 fairly common, a few days later, in northeastern Kansas, 

 about a mile back from the Missouri River, where their 

 low alto strains formed a kind of gray background for 

 the high-pitched trills of the Harris sparrows and the 

 loud pipings of the cardinals. Quaint as our little con- 

 tralto's solos are, they have a distinct fascination for me, 

 and now that I no longer live in the Sunflower state, I 

 miss them sorely when the springtime comes. 



These sparrows do not, I believe, breed in Kansas, but 

 are known to establish their households in the northern 



