SONG SPARROWS. 159 



garden birds than all other enemies combined. In the lowland skunks, raccoons, minks, 

 and snakes are the Song Sparrow's chief enemies. Jays, magpies, and shrikes and also 

 the parasitic cowbirds do much harm to this and all other small birds. The Song 

 Sparrow will breed in all the country gardens of the North if well protected. 



I have kept Song Sparrows in a large cage with other birds and also singly. 

 They make excellent cage pets and become in time very tame. If kept singly they sing 

 very diligently from March to June. If carefully supplied with a variety of food, they 

 keep in good health for a long time. I supplied them in winter with millet and Canary- 

 seed, adding in spring and summer "ants' eggs," crated hard boiled egg. Mockingbird- 

 food, lettuce, and meal-worms, The latter they took fearlessly from the hand. 



NAMES: Song Sparrow.— Singsperling, Sangerfink (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fringilla fasciata Gtnel. (1788). MELOSPIZA FASCIATA Scott (1876). Fringilla. 

 melodia Wils. (iSlO). Zonotrichia melodia Bonap. (1838). Melospiza melodia Baird (1858). 



DESCRIPTION: Sexes, alike. "General tint of upper parts, rufous and distinctly streaked with rufous-brown, 

 dark brown, and ashy-gray. The crown is rufous, with a superciliary and median stripe of dull gray, the 

 former lighter ; nearly white anteriorly, where it sometimes has a faint shade of yellow, principally in the 

 autumn ; each feather of the crown with a narrow streak of black, forming about six narrow lines. Inter- 

 scapulars, black in the center, then rufous, then pale grayish on the margin, these three colors on each 

 feather very sharply contrasted. Rump, grayer than upper tail-coverts, both with obsolete dark streaks. 

 There is a white maxillary stripe, bordered above and below by one of dark rufous-brown, and with an- 

 other from behind the eye. The under-parts are white ; the jugulum and sides of body streaked with clear 

 dark brown, sometimes with a rufous suffusion. On the middle of the breast these marks are rather 

 aggregated so as to form a spot. No distinct white on tail or wiiigs. Bill, pale brown above; yellowish 

 at base beneath. Legs, yellowish. 



"Length of male, 6.50 inches ; wing, 2.58 ; tail, 3.00 inches." (Ridgway.) 



Mountain Song Sparrow, Melospiza fasciata montana Hensh. This form inhabits 

 the Rocky Mountain districts, w^est to Nevada, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington. 

 According to Prof. R. Ridgway, this Song Sparrow is one of the most abundant resident 

 species inhabiting the fertile portions of the Great Basin. It principally occupies the 

 willow^ thickets near streams, but it is also found in the tule sloughs of the river valleys. 

 In all respects, as to habits, especially in its familiarity, it represents in the West our 

 well-known Song Sparrow of the East. Mr. Ridgway expresses the song thus : Cha- 

 cha-cba-cha-wit'-tur'-r-r-r-r-r-tut. He found nests in the Wahsatch Mountains. They 

 were generally among bushes, in willow thickets along the streams, about a foot from 

 the ground. 

 DESCRIPTION: With larger wings and tail, smaller and more slender bill, general tone of plumage more 



gray, and streaks, both above and below, narrower. 



Heermann's Song Sparrow, Melospiza fasciata heermanni Ridgw., inhabits the 

 interior of southern California, east into western Nevada. It takes the place of its 

 counterpart, the Song Sparrow, in California, and is also knowii as the California Song 

 Sparrow. Whether or not it breeds in gardens I cannot say, but it is common on the 

 bushy hill-sides, in canons and along the banks of creeks and rivers. It usually nests in 

 bushes from four to six feet from the ground. 



DESCRIPTION : This is a larger and darker-colored bird, with ground-color of upper parts decidedly brown 

 or olive, the dark streaks, both above and below, heavier and blacker. 



