AMERICAN OSPRE Y'r \ 



VOL. 1. 



ASHLAND, KY., OCTOBER, 1890. 



NO. 10. 



BIRD STUDIES.— VI. 



MIGRATORY SPARROWS. 

 BY Pic us. 



Alter you have listened to the melody 

 of the Song Sparrows and Grass Finches, 

 and have learned the chips and trills of 

 other members of the sparrow tribe, you 

 will be ready to identify two migratory 

 sparrows, whose conspicuous colors 

 doubtless engaged your attention while 

 watching others. 



The White-throated Sparrow should 

 be spoken of first, as he, being the more 

 common, is best known. In size the 

 White-throat is above the sparrow aver- 

 a je. You will have no trouble to iden- 

 tity him, his pure white throat and 

 head, striped with black and white 

 quickly tells the story. 



The White-throats arrive in this local- 

 ity about the middle of April and al- 

 though they intend to go much farther 

 north to breed, s^-em to be in no haste to 

 move on, but tarry with us nearly a 

 month, hopping about the wet slashings 

 and along bushy fence rows. 



When the birds reach this latitude 

 I hey are in full song. While it can lay 

 lttle claim to real melody, it is, withal, 

 a pleasing ditt; , and one of the easiest to 

 rjpraient on tiie staff. Beginning in a 

 high clear whistle the second note is two 

 or more steps higher than the first, and 

 the rest of the song is pitched on a tore 

 mid-way between the two. The tint 

 two notes are uttered very deliberately, 

 and th ■ rest i icreased in rapidity to the 

 end. The sohg has been represented in 

 words as: "All day whittling, whittling, 

 whittling." In New England the bird 

 is olten called the "Peabody-bird" be- 

 cause the bitter part of the song sounds 



like a repetition of the word, "peabody." 

 The song may be easily whistled and 

 always sets the birds to singing when 

 they hear it. Often when I have been too 

 indolent to explore a bushy tract in 

 search of these birds, I have given the call 

 and brought them to sight and sound 

 immediately. 



The White-crowned Sparrow is rarer 

 than the White-throat and not seen dur- 

 ing every migration. To the eye he does 

 not seem so heavily built as his near 

 relation, from whom he is distinguished 

 by the clear white crown and absence of 

 the white on the throat. The White- 

 crown comes later than the White- 

 throat, and does not stay nearly as long. 

 He is found in the bushy fields and is 

 often heard singing in a peculiar whis- 

 tle of several svllables. 



BIRDS OF COLUMBIA COUNTY 

 WISCONSIN. 



Passenger Pigeon. (Ectopistes magra- 

 torius) Formerly very abundant in this 

 part of Wisconsin, but very scarce now. 

 Formerly they nested in colonies, laying 

 two white eggs; but now it would take 

 long and tedious tramps to find a single 

 nest, and in all probabilities would con- 

 tain but one egg. 



Green Humming-bird. I have seen a 

 great many of these birds here, l>nt have 

 n sver found any nests. 



Marsh Hawk. (Circus hudsonius) I 

 have seen a few of this species of hawk, 

 but have never been rewarded with a 

 set of its eggs. They nest some time in 

 May and June, eggs live to six sometimes 

 seven. (Ji.o. W. VOSBURG, 



( 'olumbus, Wis. 



