]59 



ONLY SPARROWS. 



"Oil, I only saw a Robin, a Bluebird and a lot of spar- 

 rows !" I have heard similar expressions many a time. It 

 is amazing to find what a very large percentage of the peo- 

 ple regard any brown bird as 'just a sparrow'. There are 

 a lot of sparrows^ but they are all quite different in plum- 

 age and some of them are very beautiful. Nearly 

 all of them have beautiful plumage or interesting 

 songs. There should be just as much interest taken 

 in the studj' of the sparrows as in the warblers 

 or any other family of birds. The reason for this sort of 

 apathy concerning them is ])robably due to the very abund- 

 ance and undesirable qualities of the English Sparrows that 

 infest our streets everywhere. 



Chipping Sparrow. 



On June twenty-seventh, a Chipping Sparrow was seen 

 flying through a small growth of pines. This was nothing 

 unusual for Chipping Sparrows were plentiful about the 

 place^ but this bird had a green worm in its beak; conse- 

 quently she was kept under observation until she disappear- 

 ed in the top of a little pine. The voices of little birds 

 could be heard in the same spot, but so well was tlie nest 

 concealed that several circuits of the tree failed to reveal it. 



Carefully parting the boughs at the top, we opened to 

 view the prettv scene of the mother Chippy, standing on the 

 edge of a nest, admiring her family of four. She seemed to 

 show neither anger nor fear at the interruption but viewed 

 us with as much interest as we did her. It was a strange 

 fact that this pair of birds, nesting more than half a mile 

 from the nearest habitation, showed less fear thin a pair 

 that dwelt in a public park where people were constantly 

 passing within three feet of them. 



It was a very bright looking lot of little ones, reared in 

 this cozy and secure home^ where the sunlight filtered down 



