32 EVERYDAY BIRDS 



Perhaps you will know him by this brief de- 

 scription : a very small, slender sparrow, with a 

 dark chestnut-red crown, a black forehead, a 

 black bill, and plain unstreaked and unspotted 

 under parts. 



His ordinary note, or call, is a chip (whence 

 his name), and his song is a very dry, tuneless, 

 monotonous, long-drawn chippy -chippy-chippy, 

 uttered so fast as to sound almost like a trill. 

 You may like the bird never so well, but if you 

 have any idea of music, you will never call him a 

 fine singer. What he and his mate think about 

 the matter there is, of course, no telling. He 

 seems to be very much in earnest, at all events. 



He is a social bird, I say. You will not have 

 to go far afield or into the woods in search of 

 him. If you live in any sort of country place, 

 with a bit of garden and a few shrubs and fruit 

 trees, a pair of chippers will be likely to find you 

 out. Their nest will be built in a tree or bush, 

 a small structure neatly lined with hair, and in 

 due time it will contain four or five eggs, blue 

 or greenish blue, with brown spots. 



Our other bird is of the chipper's size, and, 

 like him, has unstreaked and unspotted lower 

 parts. His bill is of a light color, " reddish 

 brown," one book says, " pale reddish," says an- 

 other. This is one of the principal marks for 



