The Nuttall Sparrow 



Hee, wudge, i-wudge i-wudge i-weeee are vocalized examples. The prelim- 

 inary hee ho is sometimes clear and sweet enough to prepare one's ear for 

 the Vesper Sparrow's strain, but the succeeding syllables are tasteless, and 

 the trill with which the effort concludes has a wooden quality which we 

 may overlook in a friend, but should certainly ridicule in a stranger. No 

 doubt the fogs and bracing breezes which characterize our western coasts 



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lit 







Taken in Washington Photo by the Author 



NEST AND EGGS OF NUTTALL SPARROW ON GROUND 



are alike discouraging to vocal effort. At that, however, there is a notice- 

 able improvement in quality from north to south ; and I am sure that the 

 birds of San Francisco Bay sing more sweetly than do those of Puget 

 Sound. I hazard it as a sober guess that if our ears were infallible, we 

 could tell within a few miles the locality from which our wintering birds 

 hail. 



Gambel and Nuttall Sparrows mingle more or less in winter, at least 

 from San Francisco southward; and it is idle to try to separate them. 

 They are jolly fellows in a crowd; and if to the general excitement of early 

 springtime is added the special interest of bedtime, the noise these rascals 

 can make is fairly deafening. There is always hilarious discussion of 

 the merits of upper and lower berths; and when to their jostling notes — 

 woods woods a woods — are added sharp dzinks from the grouches, the 

 resulting babel compares favorably with Passer domesticus in Bedlam. 



The local Nuttalls are nesting in late March or early April, before 



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