XIV 

 SPARROW ROW 



THE trail that led over to Cornell Canyon started 

 right up a small ravine from the city street. The 

 street ended at the abrupt slope that cut steeply up the 

 gulch. Below was the paved sidewalk, above a jungle of 

 rosebrier, blackberry, and young firs. Through and above 

 this I climbed to the abandoned wood road that wound 

 up the hillside. In the street below the English Spar- 

 rows {Passer domesticus) live, above, on the slope, the 

 Song {Melospiza melodia morphna) and White-crowned 

 Sparrows {Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli) nest. The 

 Englishers dwell at the lower end of the row in what I 

 call the tenement quarter; the songs and white-crowns live 

 above in a more restricted district. I can be in the city 

 with the noise and the city manners of the street sparrows, 

 or in a few seconds I can be in the deep woods with the 

 song sparrow. 



What a contrast, the song sparrow and the Englisher ! 

 The song sparrow is a bird of character, the other is a 

 street gamin. Our native songster is not quarrelsome. He 

 has gentle dignity, while this imported son of England is 

 bold and brawling. The full, rich notes that ring from the 

 hillside are drowned in the discordant chirps about the 

 sidewalk and street. 



The song sparrow is one of the most constant sing- 



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