Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
feathers, rather than any malicious cunning of its disposition, are 
responsible for the name it bears. The male bird is incomparably 
the finest singer of its gifted family. His faint ¢seep call-note gives 
no indication of his vocal powers that some bleak morning in early 
March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the 
most welcome ‘‘glad surprise” of all the spring. Without a 
preliminary twitter or throat-clearing of any sort, the full, rich, 
luscious tones, with just a tinge of plaintiveness in them, are 
poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such a song at sucha 
time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear out of 
doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue 
from the leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer 
until the song ends, when he will quite likely descend among the 
dead leaves on the ground and scratch among them like any 
barn-yard fowl, but somehow contriving to use both feet at once 
in the operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take spe- 
cial delight in damp thickets, where the insects with which he 
varies his seed diet are plentiful. 
Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart 
by themselves, for they are not truly gregarious ; but they may 
sometimes be seen travelling in company with their white- 
throated cousins. They are among the last birds to leave us in 
the late autumn or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem in- 
disposed to sing unless present in numbers. Indeed, they are 
little inclined to absolute solitude at any time, for even in the 
nesting season quite a colony of grassy nurseries may be found 
in the same meadow, and small companies haunt the roadside 
shrubbery during the migrations. 
Grasshopper Sparrow 
(Ammodramus savannarum passerinus ) Finch family 
Called also: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW 
Length—s5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the Eng- 
lish sparrow. 
Male and Female—A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of 
crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head 
blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on 
back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other 
upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab 
154 
