VESPER SPARROW. So 



its nest in the ground as well as upon it, while others, of more 

 poetic taste, knew it as the " vesper bird," because its song was 

 most freijuently heard in the evening. It was Wilson Flagg who 

 changed this latter to " vesper sparrow," and by that name the 

 bird is likely to be known hereafter. 



The song of this bird is one of the simplest of oiir sylvan melodies, 

 yet it does not suffer by comparison with more ambitious efforts. It 

 is soft and sweet in tone, and exceedingly tender, and through the 

 strain there runs a wild plaintiveness that chords well with its placid, 

 hynin-lik' ({uality. It is to be heard in the evening chiefly, just after 

 the grander chorus has ceased, but it harmonizes so perfectly with 

 the beauty of the twilight hour and its restfulness that you may fail 

 to notice that a bird's voice is in the air, adding its quota to the joy 

 that stirs your heart. 



The vesper sparrow is one of the " little gray birds " of the village 

 school-boy, and in size and costume bears a close resemblance to 

 the better known song sparrow. The feathers covering the bird's 

 upper parts are streaked — dusky-brown centres, edged with Oj paler 

 and somewhat huffish tint. The under parts are white, tinged with 

 buff and heavily streaked with dusky brown. There are two white 

 bars on the wings, and the outer tail-feathers are partly white. 

 The white patches on the tail are very conspicuous as the bird flies 

 from you. 



These birds are found generally in the open pasture, or old 

 meadows, for they are birds of the field rather than of the grove 

 or the garden. When the farmer is ploughing they may be seen 

 following the plough and gleaning the grubs turned up in the 

 furrows. The nest is built in the open field, often without so much 

 as a tuft of long grass to hide it, though usually fitted into an inden- 

 tion in the soil. Like all ground nests, it is loosely laid and roughly 

 modelled. It is made of grass and other vegetable fibres, strips 

 of weed stalks, roots and such, and lined with fine grass and sometimes 

 with hair, carelessly arranged. The eggs are grayish white, often 

 with a green or pink tint, and thickly marked with several shades 

 of brown. 



This sparrow is one of the most abundant in Ontario and is quite 

 common in the other provinces, arriving at our southern border just 

 before May opens, and leaving us again in October. 



