172 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



interest in the genus Homo seems to be confined 

 to the people who pass along the road. These 

 appear to fascinate him, and it is always with re- 

 luctance that he flies away before them. A grass 

 finch he certainly is. He nests in the grass, hops 

 about in the grass, lives upon seeds he finds in the 

 grass, and rarely gets much farther away than a 

 roadside fence, or a tree that is surrounded by 

 grass. 



LV. 



TREE SPARROW. 



THE tree sparrows look much like their cousin 

 chippy, but have something of the free mountain 

 air and pine-tree atmosphere about them that the 

 domestic chippy lacks. 



I find them in spring and fall along the edge of 

 the woods, or in the fields, eating grass seed ; and 

 a flock of them spent last April with us, sing- 

 ing with the fox sparrows in the evergreens, and 

 coming about the house in the most friendly man- 

 ner. Indeed the lordly little creatures quite took 

 possession of the corn boxes in front of the dining- 

 room window, and drove off the juncos with a sad 

 show of temper. I forgave them, however, for I 

 had a capital chance to observe them while they 

 were eating the buckwheat. 



Chippy, you know, has a way of crouching close 

 to the ground. The tree sparrows, on the con- 



