126 Bird Comrades 



difference between the eastern and western birds? They 

 are, according to the systematists, the same type, and 

 yet they behave so differently. The solution of the 

 problem is, after all, quite simple. In Kansas the song 

 sparrows are winter residents exclusively, passing farther 

 north when the breeding season approaches ; only at rare 

 intervals does a pair decide to remain in the state through- 

 out the summer ; whereas in the Buckeye state these birds 

 are permanent residents, remaining throughout the year, 

 and therefore they feel sufficiently at home to tune their 

 lyres at all seasons. On the other hand, being only 

 winter visitors in Kansas, they do not seem to be able to 

 overcome their shyness; either that, or their wind harps 

 are out of tune. As a matter of fact, migrating birds 

 seldom sing a great deal in their winter homes, their best 

 lyrical efforts being husbanded for their breeding haunts. 

 I once spent part of the month of June in Minnesota, 

 almost directly north of my Kansas field of research, 

 and there found these charming minstrels as tuneful and 

 affable as the most exacting bird lover could wish. Per- 

 haps some of the very sparrows that spend the winter in 

 silence in northeastern Kansas trill their finest arias in 

 their summer homes on the shores of Lake Minnetonka 

 or in the boggy hollows in the neighborhood of Duluth. 

 When I first began to plan for moving back to Ohio, 

 I was foolish enough to fear that the song sparrows of 

 that state might have- changed their habits during the 

 years of my absence, and that I should be disappointed 

 in them: but no need of borrowine trouble on their 



