818 BIRDS 



Smith's longspur, or the painted longspur, as it is fre- 

 quently called, may be fomid about the southern part of the 

 Great Lakes region from November until April. It is a 

 handsome bird with a black and white head; the rest of the 

 plumage is a rich coppery brown. The female is decidedly 

 paler and inconspicuous. The territory through the Sas- 

 katchewan and Mackenzie River regions is the breeding- 

 grounds of the painted longspur. Longspurs have been 

 met with in summer as far north as the Arctic Coast and 

 upper Yukon Valley; in winter they reach as far south as 

 Tennessee and northern Texas. 



I have four eggs taken by a missionary in the Macken- 

 zie River region. They are clay colored and clouded with 

 obscure blotches of dark purplish-brown. The nest was in 

 a tussock of grass and composed of moss and fine stems. 

 The nests are sometimes lined with a few large feathers 

 from the wild fowl that breed in the same territory. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW* 



The English Sparrow was first introduced into the 

 United States at Brooklyn, New York, in the years 1851 

 and '52. The trees in our parks were at that time infested 

 with a canker-worm, which wrought them great injury, and 

 to rid the trees of these worms was the mission of the 

 English sparrow. 



In his native country this bird, though of a seed-eating 

 family (Finch), was a great insect eater. The few which 

 were brought over performed, at first, the duty required of 

 them; they devoured the worm and stayed near the cities. 



