Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 



roadside, abundant everywhere during nearly every month in the 

 year, and yet was there ever one too many ? There is scarcely an 

 hour in the day, too, when its delicious, ecstatic song may not 

 be heard ; in the darkness of midnight, just before dawn, when 

 its voice is almost the first to respond to the chipping sparrow's 

 wiry trill and the robin's warble ; in the cool of the morning, the 

 heat of noon, the hush of evening — ever the simple, homely, 

 sweet melody that every good American has learned to love in 

 childhood. What the bird lacks in beauty it abundantly makes 

 up in good cheer. Not at all retiring, though never bold, it 

 chooses some conspicuous perch on a bush or tree to deliver its 

 outburst of song, and sings away with serene unconsciousness. 

 Its artlessness is charming. Thoreau writes in his "Summer" 

 that the country girls in Massachusetts hear the bird say : " Maids, 

 maids, maids, hang on your teakettle, teahettle-ettle-ettle." The 

 call-note, a metallic chip, is equally characteristic of the bird's 

 irrepressible vivacity. It has still another musical expression, 

 however, a song more prolonged and varied than its usual per- 

 formance, that it seems to sing only on the wing. 



Of course, the song sparrow must sometimes fly upward, 

 but whoever sees it fly anywhere but downward into the thicket 

 that it depends upon to conceal it from too close inspection ? 

 By pumping its tail as it flies, it seems to acquire more than the 

 ordinary sparrow's velocity. 



Its nest, which is likely to be laid flat on the ground, except 

 where field-mice are plentiful (in which case it is elevated into 

 the crotch of a bush), is made of grass, strips of bark, and leaves, 

 and lined with finer grasses and hair. Sometimes three broods 

 may be reared in a season, but even the cares of providing insects 

 and seeds enough for so many hungry babies cannot altogether 

 suppress the cheerful singer. The eggs are grayish white, 

 speckled and clouded with lavender and various shades of 

 brown. 



In sparsely settled regions the song sparrows seem to show 

 a fondness for moist woodland thickets, possibly because their 

 tastes are insectivorous. But it is difficult to imagine the friendly 

 little musician anything but a neighbor. 



'59 



