FIELD-SPARROW. 
SPIZELLA PUSILLA. 
HIS sparrow, less common than the song or the 
chipping sparrow, resembles these in appearance 
and habits. He is not so social, preferring the fields and 
pastures and bushy lots. When Wilson wrote, “None of 
our birds have been more imperfectly described than the 
family of the finch tribe usually called sparrows,” he 
wrote well; but when he wrote of this one, “It has no 
song,” he brought himself under his own criticism. And 
when Dr. Coues, on the contrary, describes him as “very 
melodious, with an extensive and varied score to sing 
from,” and further, as possessing “unusual compass of 
vocal powers,” he much better describes the song sparrow. 
The field sparrow is surely a fine singer, and he may 
have several songs. I have heard him in one only; 
but that one, though short, it would be hard to equal. 
As a scientific composition it stands nearly if not quite 
alone. Dr. Coues quotes Mr. Minot on the singing of 
this bird. “They open with a few exquisitely modu- 
lated whistles, each higher and a little louder than 
the preceding, and close with a sweet trill.” The 
song does begin with two or three well-separated tones, 
—or “whistles,” if you please,— but I discover no mod- 
ulation, nor is each higher than the preceding, the open- 
