Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 



Range — North America, especially common in eastern parts from 

 Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia. 

 Migrations — April. October. Common summer resident. 



Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows are the easiest 

 to classify for that very reason, and certain prominent features of 

 the half dozen commonest of the tribe make their identification 

 simple even to the merest novice. The distinguishing marks of 

 this sparrow that haunts open, breezy pasture lands and country 

 waysides are its bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent 

 among its dingy, pale brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail- 

 quills, shown as the bird flies along the road ahead of you to 

 light upon the fence-rail. It rarely flies higher, even to sing its 

 serene, pastoral strain, restful as the twilight, of which, indeed, it 

 seems to be the vocal expression. How different from the ecstatic 

 outburst of the song sparrow ! Pensive, but not sad, its long- 

 drawn silvery notes continue in quavers that float off unended 

 like a trail of mist. The song is suggestive of the thoughts that 

 must come at evening to some New England saint of humble 

 station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting day. 



But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly 

 in the late afternoon and continues singing until only he and the 

 rose-breasted grosbeak break the silence of the early night, his is 

 one of the first voices to join the morning chorus. No "early 

 worm," however, tempts him from his grassy nest, for the seeds 

 in the pasture lands and certain tiny insects that live among the 

 grass furnish meals at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, 

 still morning and evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoy- 

 ment of them. 



The vesper sparrow is preeminently a grass-bird. It first 

 opens its eyes on the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, 

 laid on the ground among the grass that shelters it and furnishes 

 it with food and its protective coloring. Only the grazing cattle 

 know how many nests and birds are hidden in their pastures. 

 Like the meadowlarks, their presence is not even suspected until 

 a flock is flushed from its feeding ground, only to return to the 

 spot when you have passed on your way. Like the meadowlark 

 again, the vesper sparrow occasionally sings as it soars upward 

 from its grassy home. 



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