SOME APRIL SPARROWS 37 



adult male plumage — as a sparrow whose head 

 and neck appear to have been dipped in carmine 

 ink, or perhaps in pokeberry juice. His song is 

 a prolonged, rapid, unbroken warble, which he 

 is much given to delivering while on the wing, 

 hovering ecstatically and singing as if he would 

 pour out his very soul. He is a famiHar bird, a 

 lover of orchards and roadside trees, but is not 

 so universally distributed, probably, as most of 

 the other species I have named. 



In contrast with the purple finch, all the six 

 sparrows here mentioned with him have brief and 

 rather formal songs. Those of the fox sparrow 

 and the tree sparrow bear a pretty strong resem- 

 blance to each other, especially as to cadence or 

 inflection; the song sparrow's and the vesper 

 sparrow's are still more closely alike, and will 

 almost certainly confuse the novice, while those 

 of the field sparrow and the white-throat are each 

 quite unique. 



The fox sparrow visits Massachusetts as a 

 migrant only, and the same might be said of the 

 white-throat, only that it breeds in Berkshire 

 County and single birds are often seen in the 

 eastern part of the State during the winter. The 

 tree sparrow is a winter resident, going far north 

 to rear its young, and the remaining four species 

 are with us for the summer. 



