VERMONT BIRD CLUB 15 



opens with one low note and is followed by two high ones; while 

 the Song Sparrow usually begins with three notes all of a kind. 

 Music is an important matter with the Vesper Sparrow, often 

 singing continuously for half an hour. His vesper service may 

 be heard at about sunset lasting through the twilight hours. He 

 is often called the Grass Finch. 



Another little sparrow that comes to us about the same 

 time as the Vesper is the Field Sparrow. He is usually to be found 

 in hill-side pastures. He resembles the Chippy in that he has a 

 chestnut crown; but if you notice that his bill is flesh colored, 

 not black, and that he has a whitish ring about the eye and light 

 colored feet, we shall know at once that he is not a Chippy. 

 How different his song, clear and sweet, and almost a whistle. I 

 think it is unusual for them to come near the house, but saw 

 them last spring on our lawn feedmg with other sparrows. 



A member of this family which I had the pleasure of seeing 

 for the first time last May at our first out-door meeting is the 

 Swamp Sparrow. He hasa chestnut head. Nearly every author 

 that I have consulted agrees that he is often mistaken for the Song 

 Sparrow, which seems strange to me, as he has a gray unspotted 

 breast, so very unlike the Song Sparrow. Another identifying 

 mark which I noticed, although I do not find it mentioned in 

 any bird book is the three white bars on the wing which instead 

 of extending across the wing went lengthwise. I did not hear 

 his song but Chapman says it is a sweet but rather monotonous 

 tweet, tweet, tweet, repeated many times and sometimes running 

 into a trill. 



The sparrows that I have thus far mentioned are not conspic- 

 uous for their beauty, but the two which I shall now mention are 

 very aristocratic looking birds, the White- crowned and White- 

 throated Sparrows. The former is a beautiful large brownish 

 sparrow with head striped black and white, three white and four 

 black stripes. I wish we might claim him as a summer resident 

 at least, but he is only a visitor, stopping with us a few weeks as 

 he journeys to and from his northern home. His song is very 

 sweet and plaintive which once heard is not easily forgotten. 

 He makes several calls at our piazza every spring. 



About the same size but not so striking a bird is the White- 

 throated Sparrow or Peabody Bird. He makes his home with us 

 through the summer. His head has two black and three white 

 stripes, two of the white stripes being yellow in front; on the 

 throat is a white patch, also there are two distinct white wing 

 bars. They have nested many summers in the brush heaps where 

 the pine trees have been cut. They have a very unusual song. 



