WHITETHROAT SPARROW 93 



his Northern summer home where he is more 

 often heard than seen. 



In our latitude, however, the winter sunshine 

 rarely inspires him to more vocal effort than a 

 few chirps and whistles. We see these White- 

 throats on the ground in bushy, briery places, 

 scratching like chickens, often in company with 

 Fox Sparrows, and Towhees. They are ground 

 birds, even building their nests on the ground 

 after their return northward in spring. 



An old mountain field I know of, where a 

 clear "spring-branch" slides with tinkle and 

 murmur under encroaching shadows of pine and 

 dogwood, emerging into sunlight in a tangle of 

 bare bushes and blackberry briers, is a good 

 place in wiiich to see all the winter sparrows. 

 On a walk in that direction one is sure to encoun- 

 ter a group of Swamp Sparrows in the withered 

 grass, or of the large Fox Sparrows, brown and 

 glossy like the dry leaves they are so vigorously 

 tossing about; or Grasshopper Sparrows, with a 

 yellow spot on the bend of the wing and another 

 between the eye and the beak, flitting over a 

 broom-sedge knoll ; or the two white tail feathers 

 of the Vesper Sparrow flash before he disap- 

 pears into the grizzly-gray weeds and under- 

 brush. 



These are but a few of the Sparrows who 

 spend the winter in the Southern states. They 



