BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 299 
Song Sparrow. Ground Sparrow. Ground Bird. 
Melospiza cinerea 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. — Resident, 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, witha 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! 
‘ ‘ Fig. 131.—Song Sparrow, 
maids! maids! hang on your tea- about two-thirds natural 
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 larve 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 
