Odds ana nds 125 



of five and a half years in Kansas, heard a first-rate song 

 sparrow trill. Nor is that all. In the Buckeye state 

 these birds were disposed to be sociable, often selecting 

 their dwellings near our suburban homes, visiting our 

 dooryards, singing their blithe roundels on the ridge of 

 the barn roof or a post of the garden fence. Not only 

 so, but their songs were often heard in some of the prin- 

 cipal streets of towns where trees were abundant. 



Quite otherwise was the conduct of their western 

 cousins, which seldom came to town or even near a human 

 residence in the country, but kept themselves ensconced 

 in the matted copses in the banks of the Missouri River 

 or in the deep hollows running back from the broad 

 valley. In these sequestered haunts they were quite 

 wary, usually scuttling out of sight at my approach. 

 True, in Ohio many individuals also chose out-of-the-way 

 places for habitats, but even then they were not timid, 

 for often they would mount to the top of a bush or a 

 sapling in plain sight and trill sweetly by the hour, with 

 never a quaver of fear. At rare intervals a Kansas 

 sparrow would visit the thicket on the vacant lot near 

 my house, but, my ! how shy he was ! And as for singing, 

 he would only squeak a little score. 



Wondering at the reticence of the Kansas sparrows, 

 I wrote to a friend living in Springfield, Ohio, my former 

 home, and inquired what the song sparrows were doing 

 in that locality. His reply was that, as usual, they had 

 been singing with splendid effect on almost every day 

 after the middle of February. What is the reason of this 



