INTRODUCTION 



Consequently we find that in the deserts of the Southwestern 

 States the Song Sparrows are smaller than our common one 

 and are very much paler colored. Again, in northwestern 

 United States, we find that Song Sparrows are not only larger 

 than ours but are very much darker. 



In order that these differences may be properly recorded, 

 our eastern bird, being the type race, is known as Melospiza 

 melodia nielodia, the first being the generic name, the second 

 the specific name, and the third signifying that this is a type 

 bird of which there are one or more subspecies. The absence 

 of a third name signifies that a bird is a distinct species with 

 no subspecies. The Desert Song Sparrow is Melospiza 

 melodia fallax, the Sooty Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia 

 rufina, and so on. Thus our little Song Sparrow to be defi- 

 nitely described would be Class A ves, Order Passeres (Perch- 

 ing Birds), Family Fringillida (Finches, Sparrows, etc.). 

 Genus Melospiza and Type Melodia melodia. 



Characters of Birds. — Birds have straight bills, crooked 

 bills, or bills of unusual shape; webbed feet, lobed toes, or 

 long, straight, slender toes; long wings, short wings, broad 

 wings, or comparatively tiny wings; long tails, short tails, 

 or sharp, spiny-pointed tails. Why these differences? We 

 may safely assume that if a bird has a pecuharly shaped bill, 

 unusual feet or wings out of the ordinary, there is a reason, 

 and the unusual construction is better adapted to its manner 

 of living in some respect even though we cannot see how. 



The Crossbill has crooked mandibles that pass by one 

 another when the bill is closed. His food consists of seeds 

 from cones and the construction of his bill enables him to scale 

 off the seeds more rapidly and more easily than if it were of 

 ordinary shape. It would be unreasonable to presume that 

 these birds were made with crossed bills and then had to seek 

 out the food that could be best obtained with such bills, but, 

 from the very nature of evolution, we can safely say that their 

 ancestors, hundreds or thousands of generations ago, had 

 normally shaped bills; that they secured pine seeds, liked 

 them and adopted them as a staple diet, with the result that 

 the continual twisting to scale seeds from the cones has 



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