106 BIRDS 



I 



Range — ^Alaska and Manitoba to southern United States. 

 Winters chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occas- 

 ional stragglers remain North most of the winter. 



Migrations — March. November. Most common in the 

 migrations. 



There will be little diflSculty in naming this largest, most 

 plump and reddest of all the sparrows, whose fox-colored 

 feathers, rather than any mahcious cunning of its dis- 

 position, are responsible for the name it bears. The male 

 bird is incomparably the finest singer among the sparrows. 

 His faint tseep call-note gives no indication of his vocal 

 powers that some bleak morning in early March suddenly 

 Bend a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the most wel- 

 come "glad surprise" of all the spring. Without a pre- 

 liminary twitter, the full, rich, luscious tones, with just a 

 tinge of plaintiveness in them, are poured forth with spon- 

 taneous abandon. Such a song at such a time is enough to 

 summon anybody with a musical ear out of doors to where 

 the deUcious 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 bam-yard fowl, 

 but somehow contriving to use both feet at once in the 

 operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take 

 special delight in damp thickets, where the insects with 

 which he varies his seed diet are plentiful. 



The Song Sparrow 



Length — 6 to 6.5 inches. About the same size as the 

 English sparrow. 



