The Western Chipping Sparrow 



of any tendency to split up into subspecies. The alleged paling of 

 "arizonce" is a slight character at best, and it is passing strange that the 

 Chipping Sparrow's plumage has not become resaturated during the 

 bird's attendance upon the humid forests which stretch from Monterey 

 to British Columbia, nor further bleached in winter upon the burning 

 sands of the Mohave and Colorado deserts. 



Whatever the weather, Chippy returns to us about the first of April, 

 posts himself on the tip of an evergreen branch, like a brave little Christ- 

 mas candle, and proceeds to sputter, in the same part. Of all homely 

 sounds the monotonous trill of the Western Chipping Sparrow is the most 

 homely, — and the most easily forgivable. As music it scarcely ranks 

 above the rattle of castanets; but the little singer pours out his soul full 

 earnestly, and his ardor often leads him to sustained effort throughout 

 the sultry hours when more brilliant vocalists are sulking in the shade; 

 and for this we come to prize his homely ditty like the sound of plashing 

 waters. 



Two Chipping Sparrow songs heard in a northern locality deserve 

 special mention. One likened itself in our ears to a tool being ground on a 

 small emery wheel. The wheel has a rough place on its periphery which 

 strikes against the tool with additional force and serves to mark a single 

 revolution, but the continuous burr which underlies the accented points, or 

 trill-crests, is satisfied by this comparison alone. The other effort, a pecu- 

 liar buzz of varying intensity, carries forward the same idea of continuous 

 sound, but the comparison changes. In this the song appears to pour 

 from the tiny throat without effort, and its movement is as though an 

 unseen hand controlled an electric buzz, whose activity varies with the 

 amount of "juice" turned on: zzzzzzzzzzt, zzzzzzzzzzt, zzzzzzzzzzt, ZZZZZ 

 ZZZZZT, ZZZZZZZZZZT. 



In mountain camps the song of the Chipping Sparrow sometimes re- 

 quires careful distinction from that of the Sierra J unco {J unco oreganus 

 thurberi). Chippy's trill is never musical, but Junco's song occasionally 

 emulates it in woodenness. 



Chippy's nest is a frail affair at best, although it is often elaborately 

 constructed of fine twigs, rootlets, and grasses, with a plentiful lining of 

 horsehair. In some instances the last-named material is employed 

 exclusively. An orchard branch or a sycamore bough is a favorite situa- 

 tion in the low country, a horizontal branch of fir or redwood in the wet 

 country, and a bristling pine sapling undoubtedly has preference in the 

 Sierras. Rose thickets are always popular, and where the bird frankly 

 forsakes the wilds, ornamental shrubbery and vines are chosen. The nests 

 are often so loosely related to their immediate surroundings as to give the 

 impression of having been constructed elsewhere, and then moved bodily 



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