Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
Range—North America, especially common in eastern parts from 
Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia. 
Migrations—April. October. Common summer resident. 
Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows are the easiest 
to classify for that very reason, and certain prominent features of 
the half dozen commonest of the tribe make their identification 
simple even to the merest novice. The distinguishing marks of 
this sparrow that haunts open, breezy pasture lands and country 
waysides are its bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent 
among its dingy, pale brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail- 
quills, shown as the bird flies along the road ahead of you to 
light upon the fence-rail. It rarely flies higher, even to sing its 
serene, pastoral strain, restful as the twilight, of which, indeed, it 
seems to be the vocal expression. How different from the ecstatic 
outburst of the song sparrow! Pensive, but not sad, its long- 
drawn silvery notes continue in quavers that float off unended 
like a trail of mist. The song is suggestive of the thoughts that 
must come at evening to some New England saint of humble 
station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting day. 
But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly 
in the late afternoon and continues singing until only he and the 
rose-breasted grosbeak break the silence of the early night, his is 
one of the first voices to join the morning chorus. No ‘“‘early 
worm,” however, tempts him from his grassy nest, for the seeds 
in the pasture lands and certain tiny insects that live among the 
grass furnish meals at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, 
still morning and evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoy- 
ment of them. | 
The vesper sparrow is preéminently a grass-bird. It first 
opens its eyes on the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, 
laid on the ground among the grass that shelters it and furnishes 
it with food and its protective coloring. Only the grazing cattle 
know how many nests and birds are hidden in their pastures. 
Like the meadowlarks, their presence is not even suspected until 
a flock is flushed from its feeding ground, only to return to the 
spot when you have passed on your way. Like the meadowlark 
again, the vesper sparrow occasionally sings as it soars upward 
from its grassy home. 
163 
