92 Bird - Lore 



take fright at an old palm-leaf fan that was turned into an umbrella to supply 

 the shelter that the fading flowers had promised. 



If you wish to have Song Sparrows about the house, remember that there 

 is no greater lure for them than water. It may be that constant bathing is one 

 of the secrets of their good health, for certain it is that they are free from many 

 of the epidemics that destroy so many birds. I have seen the pair of birds 

 belonging to the fan-covered nest bathing when the June twilight was so deep 

 that I could not distinguish their markings, and identified them by the sharp 

 alarm note of "dick, dick!" and the fact that while they were splashing in the 

 bath the nest, in which the young were then well-feathered, was left unguarded 

 for the moment; but as soon as my motions attracted their suspicions they ap- 

 peared close by and tried to scold me away and preen their soaking feathers 

 at the same time. 



All through the long nesting season the Sweet Singer is an 

 Its Food an insect eater, both in the feeding of its young and largely in 



its own diet, while for the rest of the year it may be counted in 

 the front ranks of the Weed Warriors, and at all times it may be included among 

 the birds who do no harm to the fruits of farm and garden, — such berries as 

 it takes usually being of small wild varieties. 



The chief dangers that threaten this wholly lovable bird are from egg-hunting 

 boys, the domestic "relapsed" cats, and the sort of civilization that not only 

 cuts down woodlands for the evolution of the land to building lots, but fairly 

 scarifies the field edges and roadsides, in a foolish craze for cleaning up, removing 

 the wild hedges that mean so much to one's inner sense of beauty and the pleasure 

 of the eye. 



I have spoken of the adaptability to the many climates of its range of one 

 species, the Eastern Song Sparrow. The changes wrought by the necessities that 

 have developed many species in more widely separated parts of our country 

 are very interesting and worthy to be remembered. Our Eastern bird is cloaked 

 in reddish brown and with black streaks; tail with a decided reddish tinge, under 

 parts streaked with black, edged with rusty brown, these streaks being so 

 close in the middle of the breast as to form a large spot. Our bird is less 

 than 6% inches long and has a good-sized bill. It has an unmistakable song, 

 and yet, though its notes vary indefinitely even in a single bird, its quality is 

 typical of the whole tribe. 



The size and plumage of the other Song Sparrows nearly a score in num- 

 ber, vary with the climate and rainfall of the locality in which they are 

 found,* and it is interesting to follow these variations on the map. 



Our Sweet Singer lives altogether east of the Rockies. At the extreme northerly 

 portion of Alaska is found the largest bird of the tribe, the Aleutian Song 

 Sparrow. 



♦See Climatic Variation in Color and Size of Song Sparrows, F. M. Chapman, in Bird-Lore, 

 Vol. VI, p. 164. 



