156 THE BAY-WINGED SPARROW. 



US in late autumn, the warm tints of its plain dress are 

 decidedly pleasing; but in the burning heat of midsummer, 

 from constant contact with grass, stubble, dust and gravel, 

 it appears rather shabby. 



The melody of the Bay-wing, if not so sprightly and varied, 

 still bears quite a resemblance to that of the Song Sparrow, 

 and is expressive of a tender pathos, which may even give it 

 the preference. It is one of the few bird-songs which might 

 be written upon a musical staff. Beginning with a few soft 

 syllables on the fifth note of the musical scale, it strikes 

 several loud and prolonged notes on the eighth above, and 

 ends in a soft warble, which seems to die out for want of 

 breath, and may run a little down the scale. Though the song 

 is not brilliant, and rather suggestive of humble scenes and 

 thoughts, " the grass, the stones, the stubble, the furrow, the 

 quiet herds, and the warm twilight among the hills,'' it is 

 nevertheless a fine pastoral, full of the sweet content which 

 dwells in the bosom of nature. It is heard to the best advantage 

 when the rosy hues of sundown are' tinting the road, the 

 rocks, and all the higher lights of .the evening landscape. 

 Then an innumerable company of these poets "of the 

 plain, unadorned pastures" — some perched on the fences, 

 some on weeds and thistles, but many more hid in the 

 grass and stubble — swell into their finest chorus, while most 

 other birds are gradually subsiding into silence. It has 

 been well said that the farmer following his team from the 

 field at dusk catches the Bay-wing's sweetest strain, and 

 that a very proper name for it would be the Vesper Spar- 

 row. Its nest, which is on the ground, and often without 

 any protection, is built outwardly of the coarse material of 

 the fields, and lined with fine grass, rootlets, or horse-hair. 

 The eggs, 4 or 5, some .80 x -60 of an inch, are mostly dull 

 white and quite variable in their luarkings, generally thickly 



