184: VESPER SPARROW. 



swamp or thicket will do for him, but in great broad fields 

 he is at home. If a roadway leads through his haunts, 



Vesper Sparrow, 7 OU ma y ^ en see mm on the ground 

 Pooccetes gramineus. ahead of you, and when he flies the 



Plate XLIV. white feathers shown on either side of 

 his tail will give you an excellent clew to his identity. 

 Probably he will fly on ahead a little way and alight 

 again in the road, or a longer flight may lead him to a 

 neighboring fence or the upper branches of a more dis- 

 tant tree. It is from positions of this kind that he most 

 often sings. With him song is evidently a matter of im- 

 portance. He can not, like many birds, sing between the 

 mouthfuls of a meal, but ascending to his perch he gives 

 perhaps half an hour entirely to music, resting motionless 

 between the intervals of each song. 



It is impossible to satisfactorily describe this song. 

 It resembles that of the Song Sparrow, but is finer and 

 wilder. It opens with one low note, followed by two 

 higher ones, while the Song Sparrow begins with three 

 notes, all of the same kind. 



The Vesper Sparrow is migratory, coming to us with 

 the Field Sparrow early in April and remaining until 

 November. Its nest is placed on the ground, and the 

 bluish or pinkish white speckled eggs are laid early in 

 May. 



It is strange, is it not, that the only bird we all detest 

 should also be the only one who insists on sharing our 

 homes with us. The House or English 

 8lnw. a F** of the times ; a 

 remarkably keen-witted bird, who, like 

 a noxious weed, thrives and increases where a less hardy 

 species could not exist. 



This harsh- voiced little gamin soon detects and avoids 

 anything like a systematic attempt to entrap him, and, 

 being productive past all belief, seems likely to completely 



