WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



as the site, it is not uncommon to find simply a 

 little rim, like a tinker's dam, built around the 

 eggs, which rest on the bare surface beneath. In 

 such a situation their gray down renders the young 

 safely inconspicuous. 



Another early and familiar visitor to the gardens 

 is the chipping sparrow, or "chippy/' its delicate 

 voice coming to us from among the first blossoms 

 of the lilac. It is also called the "hair-bird/' 

 because its nest is composed mainly of horse-hairs 

 twined into a flat little basket of slender twigs 

 and rootlets. But this is not a good name; the 

 scientific designation "social sparrow" fits the 

 bird better, for it seeks to be social with man, and 

 places its home where every boy and girl of the 

 family may look in at the front door. The eggs 

 are pea-green, scrawled, as though by a pen, with 

 black lines and dots. 



The food of the chippy during the spring and 

 summer consists largely of small insects, and 

 he searches carefully through the blossoming 

 trees for the minute bugs that infest the leaves 

 and flowers, occasionally nipping off the sweet 

 and tender stamens of the apple and cherry blos- 

 soms, or taking bites out of the early currants, but, 

 on the whole, doing great service in payment for 



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