WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



this strain, which I thought a simple but very pro- 

 found summing-up of life, and wondered where the 

 little bird had learned it so quickly. The present 

 season I heard another with a song equally origi- 

 nal, but not so easily worded. Among a large 

 troop of them in April, my attention was attracted 

 to one that was a master songster some Shelley 

 or Thomson among its kind. The strain was re- 

 markably prolonged, intricate, and animated, and 

 far surpassed anything I ever before heard from 

 that source/' 



Occasionally the song - sparrow sings on the 

 wing while dropping to the ground from the top 

 of a high tree a favorite perch in early spring; 

 and during the mating season many strange 

 modifications of his tune strike the ear. As the 

 summer comes on, his song, in common with that 

 of all other birds, is less often repeated until it 

 almost ceases in the fall; yet it may be heard, by 

 an observing listener, every month in the year. 

 His call to his mate is a simple chuck or hwit. 



Rarely leaving his native copses until late in 

 autumn, he has little need to exert large powers 

 of flight, and moves from one low bush to another 

 with a jerking, undulatory motion. His home 

 is near the ground, and it is only the excitement 



148 



