"Another favorite Sparrow, but little noticed, is the Wood or Bush Sparrow, 

 usually called by the ornithologists Spizella pusilla. Its size and form is that of the 

 Chippy, but is less distinctly marked, being of a duller, redder tinge. He prefers remote 

 bushy, heathy fields, where his song is one of the sweetest to be heard. It is sometimes 

 very noticeable, especially early in spring. I remember sitting one bright day in the 

 still leafless April woods, when one of these birds struck up a few rods from me, repeat- 

 ing its lay at short intervals for nearly an hour. It was a perfect piece of wood music, 

 and w^as of course all the more noticeable for being projected upon such a broad un- 

 occupied page of silence. Its song is like the words, fe-o, fe-o, fe-o, fewr, few, few, fee, 

 fee, fee, uttered at first high and leisurely, but running very rapidly toward the close, 

 which is low and soft." 



This description gives a very clear and correct idea of the song, showing that 

 Mr. Burroughs is not only a good observer of the habits of our birds, but that he has 

 also a fine ear for bird-music. I have heard the same notes almost daily from November 

 to late in March near the West Yegua Creek in Texas, where the birds winter in count- 

 less numbers, congregating with Juncos, White-throated and many other Sparrows. 

 They kept together in large swarms, and on fine days each male mounted the top of a 

 bush or the rail-fence and began to sing. The air was fiill of the sweetest music, and 

 the song here was much more conspicuous than in its summer home. This Sparrow^ 

 w^as, with the exception of the Cardinal, and now and then a White-crowned and 

 White-throated Sparrow^, the only bifd which uttered its song. Near Houston, w^hen 

 coming from the tangled and almost impenetrable parts of the forest into some open 

 bushy place, I was usually saluted by the Field Sparrow's song. In their winter-quarters 

 — the South Atlantic and Gulf region — they frequent, with many other birds, the thickets 

 and bushy edges of woods not far from w^ater. Evergreen shrubs, such as hollies, 

 yupon bushes, myrtle hollies, and other bushes overgrown w^ith evergreen smilax and 

 Carolina jasmine, are their favorite haunts. Here they sleep, and with thousands of 

 other northern birds are comparatively safe from their many foes, especially Sparrow 

 and Pigeon Hawks which always follow these swarms of small winter birds. This is 

 their starting place, when they, shortly after day-break, fly into the neighboring cotton 

 and corn-fields to pick up the seeds of weeds and grasses. When alarmed they fly 

 directly back to the bushes, seeking and finding refuge in the masses of tangled branches. 

 During cold weather they are found more in the interior of the woods, where the cold 

 wind has lost much of its vigor. When in March the first flowers begin to bloom, 

 coloring the ground with their tender hues, the unspeakably beautiful song of these 

 birds is heard from all sides. A few days later they are on their way to the North, 

 none iremaining to breed in Texas. The departing of these lovely birds and of many 

 others, known to me since my earliest childhood, did not leave me forsaken ; but the 

 contrast for a time suggested solitude. The merry notes of their many voices still rang 

 in my ears and made me long for my northern home. It seemed as if I should follow 

 them, when the loud what cheer, what cheer of the Cardinal Red-bird fell on my ear, 

 driving from my mind all dreary thoughts. The beautiful magnolia under which I rested, 

 the thickets of holly all around me, the trumpets of fragrant Carolina jasmine, the gar- 

 lands of smilax and trumpet creeper scrambling over bush and tree, the songs of the 



