SONG SPAEEOW 



117 



FIG. 58. 

 Song Sparrow. 



sachusetts, where the 

 winds blow lustily over 

 the snow, the cheering 

 winter birds occasion- 

 ally favor us with a 

 summer song. Indeed, 

 in many places the wel- 

 come voice of the Spar- 

 row has been heard in 

 every monj;h of the 

 year except December. 

 Like the Chippy and 



other philosophers, the Song makes the most of 

 the table that is spread for it, changing with good 

 grace from the seeds that winter offers to the in- 

 sects that summer brings. Mr. Nehrling considers 

 it one of our most useful birds 

 from the eagerness with which 

 it sets upon injurious caterpil- 

 lars, grasshoppers, and leaf-eat- 

 ing beetles, to say nothing about 

 cabbage worms and moths ; while 

 the persistency of its search for 

 rose bugs, cutworms, and all 

 kinds of beetles rivals that of 

 the most ardent entomologist. 

 While we have need of every 

 pair of these useful birds, Mr. 

 Nehrling believes that many of 

 their garden nests are destroyed 



FIG. 59. 



Pigweed, eaten by 

 Song Sparrow. 



