THE TREASURE-HUNT 125 
notes and dies away in a spray of soprano twitter- 
ings. Then there were the silver flute-notes of the 
little pink-beaked field sparrow, which they were to 
hear later across darkling meadows, and the strange 
minor strains of the white-throated sparrow. 
Before long, a sudden thirst came upon Sergeant 
Henny-Penny. Fortunately they were near the 
bubbling spring that marked the beginning of Fox 
Valley, and the whole Band halted and drank in the 
most advanced military manner, to wit, by bending 
the rims of their felt hats into a cup. This method 
the Captain assured them was far superior to the more 
usual system of lying flat on their tummies, and had 
the approval of all great military leaders from 
Gideon down. 
Right in the very midst of their drinking, there 
sounded from the thicket a hurried warble of a 
mellow timbre, the wood-wind of the sparrow orches- 
tra, and they caught a fleeting glimpse of the gray 
and tawny which is worn only by the fox sparrow, 
the largest of the sparrows and the sweetest and rar- 
est singer of them all. A moment later a song spar- 
row sang. When he stopped, the strain was taken 
up by the fox sparrow in another key. Three times 
through he sang the twelve-note melody of the song 
sparrow, and his golden voice made the notes of the 
other sound pitifully thin and reedy. Then the fox 
sparrow threw in for good measure a few extempo- 
raneous whistled strains of his own, and seemed to 
wait expectantly — but the song sparrow sang no 
more. 
