FIELD SPARROW. 



the middle of the night and give voice to a few rapid 

 measures, which comes to one's ears to use NuttalTs 

 expression like the reverie of a dream. But it is a 

 habit of many birds, especially the Sparrows, to sing in 

 the night. 



Field Sparrow This familiar bird of the rugged pasture 

 SHA* or fen * s wron gly named; he is not really 



L. 5.55 inches a Field Sparrow. He may frequent an 

 May ist old worn-out field, but the cultivated 



one is not his choice. He likes a spot more or less 

 overgrown with weeds and bushes, and from thence 

 usually comes his rather plaintive song. His appear- 

 ance is not a distinguished one. Head decidedly red- 

 brown with a gray line over the eye; sides of face, back 

 of the neck, and the throat ashen gray; back ruddy 

 brown streaked with black and light brownish gray; 

 rump ash gray; two small whitish wing-bars on each 

 wing; lower parts white washed with buff or ochre; buff 

 on the breast and sides; bill conspicuously flesh-color of 

 a ruddy tone; it is one of the best marks for the bird's 

 identification. The nest is on the ground or in a low 

 bush and is similar to that of the Song Sparrow. The 

 egg is white-blue strongly marked at the larger end with 

 cinnamon or sepia brown. This species breeds from 

 South Carolina and southern Kansas northward. 



The Field Sparrow is a gentle little creature whose 

 unsophisticated character and expressive song have won 

 for him a high place in the estimation of all bird-lovers. 

 Only Wilson seems to have failed in properly understand- 

 ing the bird, for he writes, " It is more frequently found 

 in the middle of fields and orchards than any of the 

 other species, which usually lurk along hedgerows. It 

 has no song, but a kind of chirruping not much differ- 

 ent from the chirpings of a cricket." Now the last 

 place to which I should go for the study of this Sparrow 

 would be the meadow or the orchard, and I certainly 

 should not think of comparing his song with the chirp- 

 ing of a cricket! Experience and opinion apparently 

 differ not a little, for my best opportunity of hearing 

 many Field Sparrows singing together has always been 

 103 



