Bird Study 



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THE SONG SPARROW 



Teachers' Story 



"He does not wear a Joseph's coat of many colors, smart and gay 

 His suit is Quaker brown and gray, with darker patches at his throat. 

 And yet of all the well-dressed throng, not one can sing so brave a song. 

 It makes the pride of looks appear a vain and foolish thing to hear 

 His "Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer." 



A lofty place he does not love, he sits by choice and well at ease 



In hedges and in little trees, that stretch their slender arms above 



The meadow brook; and then he sings till all the field with pleasure rings; 



And so he tells in every ear, that lowly homes to heaven are near 



In 'Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer.' 



— Henry Van Dyke. 



Children should commit to memory the poem from which the above 

 stanzas were taken; seldom in literature, have detailed accurate observa- 

 tion and poetry been so happily combined as in these verses. The lesson 

 might begin in March when we are all listening eagerly for bird voices, 

 and the children should be asked to look out for a little, brown bird which 

 sings, "Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer," or, as Thoreau interprets 

 it, "Maids! Maids! Maids! Hang on the teakettle, teakettle-ettle- 

 ettle." In early childhood I learned to distinguish this sparrow by its 

 "Teakettle" song. Besides this song, it has others quite as sweet; and 

 when alarmed it utters a sharp "T'chink, t'chink." 



The song sparrow prefers the neighborhood of brooks and ponds which 

 are bordered with bushes, and also the hedges planted by nature along 

 rail or other field fences, and it has a special liking for the shrubbery about 

 gardens. Its movements and flight are very characteristic; it usually 

 sits on the tip-top of a shrub or low tree when it sings, but when disturbed 



