THE BIRDS IN THEIR WINTER HOME. IL 



(In the Fields.) 



A half day's tramp through the pas- 

 tures and fields of a Mississippi ''second 

 bottom" any sunshiny day from the first 

 of December till the first of March will 

 reveal some of the reasons why this is a 

 veritable birds' paradise in winter. Fields 

 once in cultivation, but now abandoned to 

 sedge and Bermuda grass, cultivated 

 fields, where giant cockle burrs wrestle 

 with morning glory vines for the posses- 

 sion of the soil, tracts of palmlike pal- 

 meto and marshy jungles of willows, 

 pampass grass and briars afford attrac- 

 tive feeding grounds by day and safe 

 roosting places by night to myriads of 

 winter visitants. In such places are found 

 abundant supplies of the insects, berries 

 and seeds which this humid, semi-tropical 

 climate produces in great profusion. 

 Good shelter and plenty to eat settle the 

 problem of living for the present for our 

 little feathered friends. 



Walk out on these broad savannas 

 about the first of February before a tint 

 of white or pale green has appeared on 

 the chicasaw plum (Prunus chicasa) and 

 take note of the abundance and vigor of 

 bird life before spring has begun to 

 make serious inroads upon it. In the 

 drier parts of these lowlands, especially 

 where stubby plum bushes and haws 

 abound, our old friend the field sparrow 

 meets us with the same innocent, confid- 

 ing air that we remember as characteris- 

 tic of him in the region of Lake Erie and 

 Lake Michigan. He is one of the birds 

 that we can talk about in the indicative 

 mood without "ifs" or apologies ; 

 the good that he does in disposing of 

 surplus insect life is not ofifset by tolls 

 levied on our ripest and juiciest fruit; he 

 never goes over to the enemy to plunder 

 those who trust him. Even the robin, 

 whose praises are in everybody's mouth, 

 becomes a pirate when our cherries and 

 mulberries ripen, and we wish he would 

 stay away from our premises till the 

 berry season is over. 



The pale red or horn-colored beak of 



this bird will help us to distinguish him 

 from another, often mistaken for him — 

 the chippy, or chipping sparrow, a bird 

 of the same general appearance and size. 

 Even with the naked eye you can detect 

 differences enough to distinguish the two 

 species. Both are small birds with chest- 

 nut or rufous crown caps ; the chippy 

 has a patch of black on his forehead and 

 bill of the same color ; his brother of the 

 fields wears no black, and his bill, as be- 

 fore stated, is a pale red or horn color. 

 In Central Mississippi, as in parts of 

 Northern Ohio, field sparrows are very 

 numerous, but chippies quite rare. 



In the grass or crouched down close to 

 the brown earth and gray weed stems we 

 see another of our friends. With a 

 "chip" he jumps up out of the grass and 

 is away before you can see what particu- 

 lar shade of gray or brown is most con- 

 spicuous. However, he doesn't fly far, 

 but suddenly drops into some inviting 

 tuft, spreading out his tail like a fan as 

 he does so, as if on purpose to show you 

 its margin of white. This is the only 

 one of our common sparrows that shows 

 the white feather — the vesper sparrow, 

 or bay-winged bunting. The field spar- 

 row, as one authority says, had better 

 be called the tree sparrow, because of 

 his marked fondness for bushes and 

 shrubs, but both of the former's names 

 fit; he is rightly called the vesper spar- 

 row from his delightful custom of sing- 

 ing his choicest hvmns to the dying sun, 

 and bay-winged bunting from the con- 

 spicuous patch of bay or rufous on the 

 lesser wing coverts. 



Sometimes in company with the ves- 

 pers we see the slate-colored junco, or 

 snow bird ; at other times a gorgeous, dis- 

 tinguished looking sparrow, yarned from 

 his partiality to these broad, low fields, 

 the savanna sparrow. He is the dandy 

 of this winter resort. His plaid coat and 

 striped shirt eclipse the somber colors of 

 all his cousins. The epaulettes of gold 

 on his shoulders indicate his high rank ; 



