BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



299 



Song Sparrow. Ground Sparrow. Ground Bird. 



Melospiza melodia melodia. 



Length. — About six and one-half inches. 



Adult Male. — Above, brown; the back streaked with a, darker shade; top of 

 head reddish-brown, mottled with blackish streaks ; a streak of light gray 

 through center of crown and one over the eye ; a dark line through eye 

 and two on the lower jaw ; breast and sides whitish, spotted with dark 

 brown, the spots usually massed in the center of breast, where they form a 

 large spot or cluster ; tail rounded and rather long. 



Nest. — Usually on ground or in bush, rarely in tree. 



Eggs. — Whitish, endlessly varied with browns. 



Season. — Kesident, but not common in winter. 



Few birds are better known than the Song Sparrow, and 

 few are better friends to man. Those who do not know the 

 bird will recognize it as the sweet singer of March and 

 April, with a large blotch in the middle 

 of its spotted breast. It prefers moist 

 land near water, and may be found 

 along the banks of brooks and the 

 shores of ponds or rivers. The nest 

 is often sunk in the sloping bank of 

 some brook or ditch. According to 

 Thoreau, its song, as expressed by the 

 country people, runs thus: "Maids! 

 maids ! maids ! hang on your tea- 

 kettle-ettle-ettle." It has a charac- 

 teristic chenk, evidently an alarm note, and several other 

 notes. 



The Song Sparrow is at home in rich, moist gardens, and 

 feeds among crops like cabbage and celery, which are often 

 raised on lowlands. It is destructive to cabbage plant lice 

 and cutworms. It eats some caterpillars of the gipsy moth, 

 the brown-tail moth, and several of the hairless pests among 

 the Geometrids. Leaf hoppers and spittle insects, grasshop- 

 pers, locusts, crickets, and click beetles are among the pests 

 that it destroys. It picks up a few snails and aquatic in- 

 sects around the water. Flies and their larvae are relished. 

 Earthworms and spiders are frequently taken. Only two 

 per cent, of the food consists of useful insects ; injurious 

 species make up eighteen per cent. The vegetable food 



Pig. 131. — Song Sparrow, 

 about two-thirds natural 

 size. 



