92 THE FOX SPARROW. 



large as a Thrush and quite as fine. We feel sure that he is concealing a rare 

 gift of song under that rusty cloak of reserve. As for him his one ambition 

 seems to be to slip away unobserved, unless indeed it be to steal a sly glance 

 at you from behind some tree-bole. His only note as he speeds with strong 

 wing into cover is a thrasher-like chuck of alarm. Year after year, it may 

 be, one comes upon shy companies of these handsome fellows in brush-strewn 

 woods or in the undergrowth of river bottoms, but never a song do they 

 vouchsafe. Dr. Wheaton died without having heard the song of the Fox 

 Sparrow. 



Finally on some favored day — there is not a breath to tell you of the 

 good fortune in store — a clear, strong, exultant song bursts upon your ears 

 from some half-distant copse, Chee-hoo, ker-zveeoo, weoo, weeoo, lueoo. The 

 Fox Sparrow has found his voice. 



There is a sweetness and vivacity about the song which wins our ad- 

 miration at once. It speaks so eloc[uently of anticipated joy, that we must 

 envy the bird his summer glade in wild Keewatin. Our Vesper Sparrow 

 whistles a somewhat similar tune, but he is all contentment, realization now, 

 and at half the cost. Professor T. C. Smith, who has been exceptionally 

 favored at Columbus, says in this connection^ : "The voice of the Fox Spar- 

 row in its full power is clear, sustained, and rendered rich by overtones. It 

 has not, of course, the metallic, vibrant ring of the Thrushes or the Bobolink, 

 it is rather the Sparrow or Finch voice at its best, a whistle full of sweetness 

 with continual accompanying changes of timbre. 



"Unlike most of the Sparrows the Fox Sparrow displays an ability to 

 let his notes drop into one another by a quick flexible slide, usually accom^ 

 panied by a slight change in timbre, which is the characteristic of the war- 

 bling birds such as the Vireos — in this respect he surpasses all of his race that 

 I have ever heard except the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Cardinal." 



More frequently the Fox Sparrows are heard singing — sometimes in 

 chorus — in a subdued tone or half-voice. The effect at such a time is very 

 pleasing, but one does not get any adequate impression of the bird's powers 

 of modulation or sweetness. 



1 See an excellent article by Professor Smith on the "Song of the Fox Sparrow" in the Ohio Naturalist, 

 April, 1903. 



