VESPER SPARROW. 141 
swamp or thicket wi!l do for him, but in great broad fields 
he is at home. If « roadway leads through his haunts, 
Sparrow, YOu may often see him on the ground 
"at gramineus. ahead of you, and when he fies the 
Plate XLIV. — white feathers shown on either side of 
his tail will give you an excellent clew to his identity. 
Probably he will fly on ahead a little way and alight 
again in the road, or a longer flight may lead him to a 
neighboring fence or the upper branches of a more dis- 
tant tree. It is from positions of this kind that he most 
often sings. With him song is evidently a matter of im- 
portance. He can not, like many birds, sing between the 
mouthfuls of a meal, but ascending to his perch he gives 
perhaps half an hour entirely to music, resting motionless 
between the intervals of each song. 
It is impossible to satisfactorily describe this song. 
It resembles that of the Song Sparrow, but is finer and 
wilder. It opens with one low note, followed by two 
higher ones, while the Song Sparrow begins with three 
notes, all of the same kind. 
The Vesper Sparrow is migratory, coming to us with 
the Field Sparrow early in April and remaining until 
November. Its nest is placed on the ground, and the 
bluish or pinkish white speckled eggs are laid early in 
May. 
It is strange, is it not, that the only bird we all detest 
should also be the only one who insists on sharing our 
homes with us. The House or English 
hogeay a . Sparrow, is a product of the times; a 
remarkably keen-witted bird, who, like 
a noxious weed. thrives and increases where a less hardy 
species could not exist. 
This harsh-voiced little gamin soon detects and avoids 
anything like a systematic attempt to entrap him, and, 
being productive past all belief, seems likely to completely 
