VESPER SPARROW. 



Vesper This Sparrow is sometimes called the 



Sparrow Grass Finch from its habit of spending 



Pocecetes ,, .. ., ,. . ,, , , 



gramineus tne S reater P art * lts time ln tne fields 



L. 6. 10 inches foraging for seeds. Its coloring is not 

 April loth, or very unlike that of the Seng Sparrow, 

 all the year though it is somewhat grayer, and its 

 distinguishing mark is the white tail feathers which the 

 other bird does not possess. Upper parts gray -brown 

 similar to that of the weathered fence rail; considerable 

 streakiness in ochre and black modifies this color; wings 

 sepia brown with two inconspicuous white bars; the 

 shoulders are a bright chestnut brown; tail sepia brown 

 with the outer feathers on either side nearly all white, 

 the next pair with more or less white; breast and sides 

 streaked with ochre and black; under parts dull white. 

 Female similarly colored. Nest of grasses and rootlets, 

 lined with finer grass and hair; it is built upon the 

 ground. Egg, pinkish white speckled with chestnut 01 

 umber brown; it is sometimes bluish white evenly and 

 thickly speckled. The range of the bird is throughout 

 eastern North America with the western limit at the 

 Plains. It winters along the coast from southern New 

 Jersey southward. Its chief food is the seed of various 

 weeds, etc. Like the Snow Bunting it is essentially a 

 ground bird. 



The Vesper Sparrow is a splendid singer chiefly for 

 the reason that he seems to consider song a serious piece 

 of business which must not be interrupted by any of the 

 other duties of life. He will never be found feeding 

 and singing at the same time; the Red-eyed Vireo and 

 the Oriole do that sort of thing habitually; both birds 

 have a fashion of sandwiching their songs between tid- 

 bits of grubs and caterpillars. But not so with the 

 Vesper Sparrow, for when he sings he selects a high 

 perch (in Campton his favorite place is the ridge-pole of 

 the bowling alley which belongs to the hotel near my 

 cottage), and begins a season of song which is likely to 

 last without interruption for nearly half an hourl A great 

 deal is written about the purity and beauty of this Spar- 

 row's song, but it is a very simple matter to demonstrate 

 the fact that it does not compare with the remarkable 



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