IX 



SOME APKIL SPARROWS 



For the first three weeks of April the ornithol- 

 ogist goes comparatively seldom into the woods. 

 Millions of birds have come up from the South, 

 but the forest is still almost deserted. May, with 

 its hosts of warblers, will bring a grand change 

 in this respect ; meanwhile the sparrows are in 

 the ascendant, and we shall do well to follow the 

 road for the most part, though with frequent 

 excursions across fields and into gardens and or- 

 chards. Of eighty-four species of birds seen by 

 me in April, a year ago, twenty-one were water 

 birds, and of the remaining sixty-three, twenty, 

 or almost one third, were members of the spar- 

 row family, while only five were warblers. In 

 May, on the other hand, out of one hundred and 

 twenty-five species seen twenty-three were war- 

 blers, and only eighteen were sparrows. To re- 

 present the case fairly, however, the comparison 

 should be by individuals rather than by species, 

 and for such a comparison I have no adequate 

 data. My own opinion is that of aU the birds 



