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



feathers, rather than any malicious cunning of its disposition, are 

 responsible for the name it bears. The male bird is incomparably 

 the finest singer of its gifted family. His faint tseep call-note gives 

 no indication of his vocal powers that some bleak morning in early 

 March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the 

 most welcome "glad surprise" of all the spring. Without a 

 preliminary twitter or throat-clearing of any sort, the full, rich, 

 luscious tones, with just a tinge of plaintiveness in them, are 

 poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such a song at such a 

 time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear out of 

 doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue 

 from the leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer 

 until the song ends, when he will quite likely descend among the 

 dead leaves on the ground and scratch among them like any 

 barn-yard fowl, but somehow contriving to use both feet at once 

 in the operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take spe- 

 cial delight in damp thickets, where the insects with which he 

 varies his seed diet are plentiful. 



Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart 

 by themselves, for they are not truly gregarious; but they may 

 sometimes be seen travelling in company with their white- 

 throated cousins. They are among the last birds to leave us in 

 the late autumn or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem in- 

 disposed to sing unless present in numbers. Indeed, they are 

 little inclined to absolute solitude at any time, for even in the 

 nesting season quite a colony of grassy nurseries may be found 

 in the same meadow, and small companies haunt the roadside 

 shrubbery during the migrations. 



Grasshopper Sparrow 



(Ammodramus savannarum passerinus) Finch family 



Called also: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW 



Length — 5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the Eng- 

 lish sparrow. 



Male and Female — A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of 

 crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head 

 blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on 

 back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. AH other 

 upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab 



154 



