304 PERCHERS AND SINGERS 



hedge, secure a good grip on a comfortable twig, point his 

 beak skyward at an angle of sixty degrees and sing as if 

 trying to burst his little throat. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright 

 justly calls him "the darling among the song-birds," and "the 

 most constant singer among our northern birds." In some 

 localities, at least, they sing all summer long. In Iowa I have 

 heard them a thousand times, bravely piping and trilling in 

 the sweltering heat of July and August, when other birds were 

 silent, and have been moved to wonder at the amount of 

 energy stored up in their little bodies. 



I think the best way to identify this bird is by its singing. 

 Pick out the sparrow in gray and brown which sings to sur- 

 pass all others, and it will be a Song Sparrow. Its home is 

 the eastern half of North America, from northern Manitoba 

 to Mexico. West of the Rocky Mountains it becomes the 

 Mountain Song Sparrow. In the southwestern deserts it 

 grows pale — to match its environment — and becomes the 

 Desert Song Sparrow. There are thirteen species of the Song 

 Sparrow genus — or at least that number have been described, 

 and Alaska is yet to be heard from. 



The White-Throated Sparrow 1 is the species which 

 comes next in general attractiveness. It is a very pert and 

 pretty bird — for a sparrow, and its oddly> marked head is 

 easily identified. It wears a white goatee and a black cap, 

 and on the latter is laid a broad arrow, in white. A white 

 line comes down along the centre line of the head, and an- 

 other comes forward over each eye, until the three come to- 

 gether at the base of the upper mandible. The song of this bird 



1 Zo-no-tri'chi-a al-bi-col'lis. Length, 6.50 inches. 



